Software Engineer II

Company Cox Automotive - USA Job Family Group Engineering / Product Development Job Profile Software Engineer II Management Level Individual Contributor Flexible Work Option Hybrid - Ability to work remotely part of the week Travel % No Work Shift Day Compensation Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $89,400.00 - $134,000.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program. Job Description As a Software Engineer II within NextGear Capital , you will help build and evolve the systems, applications, and digital capabilities that power one of the automotive industry's leading inventory finance businesses. Working as part of a collaborative product and engineering team, you'll contribute to solutions that support critical business operations, improve customer experiences, and enable the next generation of technology-driven innovation across the organization. This role is ideal for an engineer who has moved beyond purely guided execution and is ready to take ownership of discrete features and system components while continuing to grow technical depth and business understanding. You will work closely with product managers, architects, engineers, and business stakeholders to design, build, test, and deliver high-quality software that creates measurable value for our customers and internal teams. At NextGear Capital, AI-assisted software development is becoming a foundational part of how we build products. As a member of the team, you'll leverage modern AI tools and development practices throughout the software development lifecycle to accelerate delivery, improve quality, and enhance collaboration. Success in this role requires both strong engineering fundamentals and the ability to thoughtfully apply AI-enabled workflows while maintaining ownership of design decisions, code quality, security, and overall solution outcomes. You'll have the opportunity to contribute across the full stack, participate in technical design discussions, collaborate on product strategy and delivery, and help shape how modern software engineering practices evolve within a business that is actively investing in innovation, automation, and AI-driven transformation. What You'll Do: Collaborate with AI agents and tools to build, test, and deploy software across the SDLC, providing proper contextual inputs to improve AI understanding and ownership of output quality Contribute to prompt engineering experimentation and share tool usage insights with the team Engage in design and development discussions, helping the team conceptualize desired outcomes from a software engineering perspective Assist with feature/element estimation in terms of technical input, resources, time, and anticipated outcomes Develop and implement unit and system tests for integral code paths, ensuring adherence to secure coding practices at all times Provide technical support, including troubleshooting and enhancement, for existing and new features within application and system structures Use observability tools (logs, metrics, traces, dashboards) to monitor system health, diagnose issues, and validate that changes behave as expected in production Document processes to capture best practices, applicable methodologies, and repeatability going forward Update team members, manager, product owners, and other key stakeholders on status, challenges, and concerns Participate in code reviews, both giving and receiving feedback Take ownership of assigned work and drive it to completion with minimal oversight, while staying closely engaged with teammates, raising blockers early, and pitching in on shared team goals beyond your own assigned tasks OUTCOMES Working Software, Every Sprint: Produce working software each sprint that meets the definition of done, delivers expected value, and stays within constraints defined by engineering leadership AI Fluency: Maintain effective AI-augmented workflows that measurably improve speed and quality. Actively share what works with the team Quality Solutions: Deliver maintainable, testable, and performant software that leverages existing patterns and meets client needs, with solution complexity understood well enough to produce consistent, meaningful estimates Craft Growth: Demonstrate measurable growth toward independent ownership of features and system elements Plan Transparency: Ensure changes in direction that affect time, effort, cost, or scope are surfaced to the team and above quickly Initiative: Identify opportunities for automation, improvement, or learning and act on them with minimal guidance Who You Are: Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline and 2 years’ experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master’s degree and up to 2 years’ experience; or 14 years’ experience in a related field AI-Augmented Mindset: Consistent, effective use of AI coding assistants (GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor, etc.) across the SDLC. You provide strong context, iterate on outputs, and critically evaluate quality and correctness rather than accepting output as-is. Spec Driven Development (SDD) experience is a plus. Problem Solving: Sound analytical judgment. Troubleshoots and resolves moderately complex issues with limited guidance Full Stack Proficiency: Working proficiency across the stack you support (e.g., a backend framework such as Java/Spring Boot, a frontend framework such as React, and SQL/relational data modeling), with depth in at least one layer Version Control & Collaboration: Comfortable with Git workflows, branching strategies, and collaborative development practices Observability: Working knowledge of logging, metrics, and monitoring tools (e.g., New Relic, dashboards, alerts) to understand system behavior and health Communication: Able to clearly explain technical tradeoffs and status to teammates and non-technical stakeholders Drug Testing To be employed in this role, you’ll need to clear a pre-employment drug test. Cox Automotive does not currently administer a pre-employment drug test for marijuana for this position. However, we are a drug-free workplace, so the possession, use or being under the influence of drugs illegal under federal or state law during work hours, on company property and/or in company vehicles is prohibited. Benefits The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company’s needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave. About Us Through groundbreaking technology and a commitment to stellar experiences for drivers and dealers alike, Cox Automotive employees are transforming the way the world buys, owns, sells – or simply uses – cars. Cox Automotive employees get to work on iconic consumer brands like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book and industry-leading dealer-facing companies like vAuto and Manheim, all while enjoying the people-centered atmosphere that is central to our life at Cox. Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page. Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer – All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual’s age, race, color