Principal Financial Applications Engineer

Who we are

At Car Gurus (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  each month, and 30,000 dealerships use our products. But they're not the only ones who love Car Gurus—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

As a Principal Enterprise Applications Engineer for the Financial Applications team, you will act as a technical expert and lead engineer for finance systems and integrations, helping to design, build, and optimize enterprise financial solutions. You will leverage deep experience with financial platforms and a solid understanding of accounting principles and compliance requirements to deliver robust, scalable applications. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams—including Finance, Product, Data, Quality Assurance, and Security—to ensure the financial technology stack is effective, compliant, and supports business growth.

You will guide and mentor junior engineers and lead project delivery for complex financial systems.

What You’ll Do

• Act as a lead engineer in the design and delivery of solutions for finance-related enterprise applications, advocating for best practices and adherence to technical standards.
• Design and implement scalable, secure, and compliant solutions, contributing to architectural decisions and major initiatives in partnership with principal engineers and architects.
• Lead system enhancements and data integrations, translating business requirements and compliance needs into technical solutions.
• Conduct technical reviews, risk identification, and contribute to the development of code quality and maintainability standards.
• Enforce integration best practices using APIs, Web Services, JavaScript, and platform-native technologies.
• Serve as a technical SME to both technical and non-technical peers, troubleshooting challenging issues, ensuring knowledge sharing, and leading technical enablement within the team.
• Lead or participate in peer code reviews, design sessions, and technical workshops to ensure codebase maintainability, scalability, and efficiency, incorporating automation, monitoring, and CI/CD best practices.
• Contribute to ensuring compliance with SOX, ASC 606, and other relevant frameworks across financial platforms, assisting in audit preparation and remediation activities.
• Lead and participate in QA strategies, ensuring high standards for testing, deployment, and production health.
• Respond to incidents, lead root cause analysis, and recommend and implement preventive measures and continuous improvements to minimize business disruptions.
• Serve as a technical partner to Finance, Accounting, and related teams; lead technical discovery and deliver projects from requirements through production.
• Mentor and coach junior engineers, sharing technical knowledge and fostering best practices.
• Represent the EA team in vendor and community forums as an expert in financial applications.
• Collaborate within Agile/Scrum teams, shaping backlog priorities and making informed tradeoffs to meet business objectives.
• Evaluate new technologies and contribute recommendations for pilots or adoption to add business value.
• Lead continuous improvement projects for system and process optimization, using analytics and stakeholder feedback.
• Take initiative as a positive team player, fostering collaboration, morale, and…