Matt Quinn was eager to join online vehicle marketplace CarGurus when he stepped into his role as chief technology officer in 2022, but he’s even more excited to be at the company now.
What Does CarGurus Do?
CarGurus is an online automotive marketplace that helps consumers shop for new and used cars, compare listings, research vehicles and in some cases, start financing their car online. For dealers, CarGurus delivers a powerful combination of in-market shopper demand, merchandising and pricing tools, and real-time performance insights that help them grow their businesses more efficiently and profitably.
In a recent interview with VentureFizz, Quinn shared that CarGurus’ tech team is at a “remarkable place” in its evolution. In the last three years, Quinn led the charge on resolving old code and outdated systems, freeing up time and resources for engineers to drive AI-powered innovation like never before.
Read on to learn how a combination of speed, experimentation and stability makes CarGurus a one-of-a-kind workplace for engineers to grow their careers while having a tangible impact on the business and the future of car shopping.
CarGurus By the Numbers
- 45 million unique online marketplace visitors per month (As of March 31, 2026; represents monthly average for the first quarter of 2026)
- 10 billion real-time monthly interactions through the company’s website and mobile app
- Over 50% of used car sales in the United States are influenced by the company’s marketplace (2025 Clarivoy study of 7.4K used car sales across 1.9K dealerships)
How CarGurus Engineers Use AI to Build New Product Features
When CarGurus leaders saw an opportunity to redefine the user experience, they asked their engineers, “If you were to rewrite CarGurus using AI and ignore everything we have, what would it look like?”
The result? Three AI-powered products released between Summer 2025 and February 2026 that are designed to transform the car buying experience for both shoppers and dealers.
CarGurus Discover, the first of the three products to be released, is an AI-powered search feature that lets car shoppers describe what they want to find in their own words, whether that’s related to their budget, lifestyle or feature preferences, and allows them to research and compare options by pulling from a wide selection of both new and used cars across the United States.
Dealership Mode, which was released at the same time as CarGurus Discover, sends car shoppers a notification through CarGurus’ mobile app when they arrive at a dealership and helps them explore inventory, compare key details, and use AI to consider the pros and cons of each car, offering an unbiased recommendation based on the shopper’s needs.
Those features, as well as a pricing calculator for a specific vehicle, have empowered shoppers during their dealership visits, helping them feel more confident in their decisions.
Just one year later, CarGurus rolled out PriceVantage.
PriceVantage is a predictive pricing tool that uses real-time consumer demand data from the CarGurus platform to help dealers better understand how to price vehicles and forecast how price changes could impact sales. Designed with dealer feedback in mind, PriceVantage gives dealers a competitive advantage in their local market.
“With the expansion of our AI-powered solutions, we’re focused on helping dealers navigate an increasingly complex market with even more confidence,” CarGurus Chief Product Officer Ismail Elshareef said at the time of PriceVantage’s release.
“We’ve been able to deliver those products remarkably fast,” Quinn said. “And that speed is imperative today, especially in the world of AI.”
How CarGurus Helps Engineers Build AI Skills
AI isn’t just a game-changer for CarGurus’ customers — it’s transforming work for its employees, too.
“I want everyone to be a better employee themselves in whatever they’re doing, whether it’s at CarGurus or beyond CarGurus,” Quinn said.
“I want everyone to be a better employee themselves in whatever they’re doing, whether it’s at CarGurus or beyond CarGurus.”
To that end, Quinn empowers his team to experiment with AI as the technology continues to evolve. Engineers strongly influence when to consider incorporating different tools and when something should be changed.
At the end of 2024, for example, engineers were interested in testing out Cursor and Windsurf. Quinn and other leaders decided to give them a week off of all non-critical engineering work so they could explore and test out these tools.
“I wanted the team to have time to experience that ‘aha’ moment of ‘I’m not an iOS engineer, and I just wrote an iOS app in three hours,’” Quinn said.
Now, every engineer uses Cursor and Windsurf almost every day, and they’re rapidly incorporating new areas of AI like agentic development. But all of this experimentation wouldn’t be possible without a carefully crafted engineering culture, one Quinn describes as being rooted in ownership, a bias for action and collaboration.
What CarGurus’ Engineering Culture Is Like
While technical skills are essential for engineers at CarGurus, the ability to collaborate is just as important.
“We are not an ‘off in a corner’ service organization, getting requirements and implementing features based on a spec,” Quinn said. “We work with all the different functions — product design, marketing, and the connection with sales is remarkable.”
But collaboration does not come at the expense of CarGurus’ culture of ownership, Quinn added.
“We encourage people to work outside of their assigned area,” Quinn said. “If they see an opportunity, go take it, go run with it.”
This focus on autonomy goes hand in hand with what Quinn describes as a ‘learning mindset,’ which means engineers are expected to acquire new knowledge and share it with others.
“We give people time to learn and also celebrate that learning,” Quinn said.
To that end, CarGurus gives engineers dedicated time to attend biweekly tech talks, an annual hackathon to tackle business challenges and a yearly science fair to showcase innovative work.
“There are also plenty of opportunities to contribute beyond day-to-day projects,” Rob Richards, a senior software development engineer, said in a recent Built In story. “For example, I was part of a Web Vitals task force that looked to improve our overall website performance. This enabled me to dive deeper into the technical specifics that can help me optimize user experiences more broadly.”
What CarGurus Looks for in Engineering Candidates
For Quinn, the ideal engineering candidate doesn’t just want to advance their career; they also have a low-ego mindset and an authentic desire to impact the business.
“[Having a low ego] just unlocks so much collaboration and kindness and good positive interactions within the company,” Quinn said.
“Don't get too focused on your area and what you're doing,” he added. “Think about CarGurus and what's good for the company and take that forward with respect to what you're working on and how you're doing it.”
CarGurus’ engineers close the gap between opportunity and action, unlocking opportunities for themselves — and the business.
“We have this combination of people that are just highly ambitious and collaborative and curious, and so if you’re all of those things, it could be a great fit for you, and we have a bunch of people who you’ll love working with,” Quinn said.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do engineers work on at CarGurus?
Engineers at CarGurus work on high-scale systems that support 45 million unique monthly visitors and 10 billion real-time monthly interactions. Key projects include tools like CarGurus Discover, which uses natural language processing to help shoppers find cars based on lifestyle and budget, as well as Dealership Mode, which helps shoppers compare inventory in real-time while physically at a lot.
How does CarGurus use AI in its products?
AI is central to CarGurus' strategy to redefine the car-buying experience. The company uses AI to remove friction for both consumers and dealers. For example, dealers are provided access to predictive pricing, which uses AI to analyze massive datasets to provide real-time performance insights and predictive modeling for vehicle pricing.
What is CarGurus' engineering culture like?
CarGurus' engineering culture is rooted in ownership, a bias for action and collaboration. Engineers are encouraged to work outside their assigned areas, take ownership of opportunities they identify, and encourage knowledge-sharing with their peers through biweekly tech talks, annual hackathons and more.
