Job Description
Who we are
At CarGurus (NASDAQ: CARG), our mission is to give people the power to reach their destination. We started as a small team of developers determined to bring trust and transparency to car shopping. Since then, our history of innovation and go-to-market acceleration has driven industry-leading growth. In fact, we’re the largest and fastest-growing automotive marketplace, and we’ve been profitable for over 15 years.
What we do
The market is evolving, and we are too, moving the entire automotive journey online and guiding our customers through every step. That includes everything from the sale of an old car to the financing, purchase, and delivery of a new one. Today, tens of millions of consumers visit CarGurus.com each month, and ~30,000 dealerships use our products. But they’re not the only ones who love CarGurus—our employees do, too. We have a people-first culture that fosters kindness, collaboration, and innovation, and empowers our Gurus with tools to fuel their career growth. Disrupting a trillion-dollar industry requires fresh and diverse perspectives. Come join us for the ride!
Role overview
CarGurus is hiring an Engineering Manager to lead the Purchase team within our Consumer Engineering department. The Purchase team owns the consumer journey from the moment a shopper decides on a car to the moment the deal is done. That means delivering an experience that meets consumers where they are—whether they want agents to handle the heavy lifting on their behalf, or prefer to be guided through each step of financing, trade-in, and deal configuration themselves.
This is a pivotal leadership role at an exciting moment: we are actively transitioning our engineering practices toward AI-native and fully agentic development, and this manager will be a key driver of that transformation. You’ll lead a team of talented engineers, shape the technical vision for one of our most strategically important product areas, and champion AI-forward ways of working—from integrating AI coding assistants into daily workflows to architecting intelligent, consumer-facing experiences. If you’re energized by the intersection of modern AI development and high-impact consumer products, this is the role for you.
What you’ll do
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of engineers, supporting their technical development and career growth while fostering a collaborative, high-performance team culture
- Partner closely with Product, UX, and Analytics to drive the Purchase roadmap from concept through technical design, implementation, testing, and measurement; actively contribute to roadmap prioritization by proposing technical investments and providing well-reasoned estimates
- Champion AI-forward engineering practices across the team—actively promoting the use of AI coding assistants, agentic workflows, and AI-driven tooling as core parts of the development process
- Lead the team’s transition to fully agentic programming paradigms, setting expectations, removing blockers, and modeling the mindset shift required
- Define and drive delivery of consumer-facing AI experiences, collaborating with product and design to bring intelligent, personalized features to millions of car shoppers
- Manage project scope, estimation, and prioritization; decompose complex initiatives into small, self-contained units of work and drive their incremental delivery with a bias toward shipping and learning quickly
- Collaborate effectively across team boundaries—working with consumer, dealer, and platform engineering teams to align on dependencies, define integration requirements, and ensure the Purchase platform evolves reliably alongside the broader CarGurus ecosystem
- Roll up your sleeves and pitch in wherever you’ll have the greatest impact—whether that’s diving into a technical design session, helping scope an A/B test, unblocking a critical dependency, or jumping into any other area where your involvement moves the team forward
- Advocate for engineering excellence—code quality, observability, system reliability, and continuous improvement in process and tooling
- Have fun!
What you’ll bring
- 7+ years of relevant engineering experience, with 3+ years in an engineering management or technical lead role
- Solid backend engineering foundation—comfortable engaging deeply in architectural discussions, system design, and technical trade-offs, particularly in Java/Spring environments, distributed systems, and data layer design
- Genuine enthusiasm for AI and agentic development: you believe AI coding tools and multi-agent workflows are the future of software engineering, and you lead by example in adopting them—set a vision for AI-native development practices and guide engineers through the cultural and technical shift
- Experience delivering consumer-facing AI features or products; experience with conversational or agentic AI experiences is a strong plus
- Customer and product-focused mindset with a bias toward data-driven decisions, and a track record of shipping high-quality, user-centric features at scale
- Strong project management skills and experience with Agile methodologies; able to drive clarity and incremental progress in fast-moving, ambiguous environments
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and help them grow technically and professionally
- Strong communicator and collaborator who builds trust across engineering, product, and design
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
- Curious, empathetic, and plays well with others—with a commitment to continuous learning and expanding your capabilities
The displayed range represents the expected annual base salary / On-Target Earnings (OTE) for this position. On-Target Earnings (OTE) is inclusive of base salary and on-target commission earnings, which applies exclusively to sales roles.
Individual pay within this range is determined by work location and other factors such as job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
This annual base salary forms part of a comprehensive Total Rewards Package. In addition to benefits, this role may qualify for discretionary bonuses/incentives and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).
Position Pay Range
$186,000—$233,000 USD
Working at CarGurus
We reward our Gurus’ curiosity and passion with best-in-class benefits and compensation, including equity for all employees, both when they start and as they continue to grow with us. Our career development and corporate giving programs, as well as our employee resource groups (ERGs) and communities, help people build connections while making an impact in personally meaningful ways. A flexible hybrid model and robust time off policies encourage work-life balance and individual well-being. Thoughtful perks like daily free lunch, a new car discount, meditation and fitness apps, commuting cost coverage, and more help our people create space for what matters most in their personal and professional lives.
We welcome all
CarGurus strives to be a place to which people can bring the ultimate expression of themselves and their potential—starting with our hiring process. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, or sexual orientation. We foster an inclusive environment that values people for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. That’s why we hope you’ll apply even if you don’t check every box listed in the job description. We also encourage you to tell your recruiter if you require accommodations to participate in our hiring process due to a disability so we can provide the appropriate support. We want to know what only you can bring to CarGurus. #LI-Hybrid
