Positively disrupting an industry that has not seen any innovation in over 50 years, Tekion has challenged the paradigm with the first and fastest cloud-native automotive platform that includes the revolutionary Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) for retailers, Automotive Enterprise Cloud (AEC) for manufacturers and other large automotive enterprises and Automotive Partner Cloud (APC) for technology and industry partners. Tekion connects the entire spectrum of the automotive retail ecosystem through one seamless platform. The transformative platform uses cutting-edge technology, big data, machine learning, and AI to seamlessly bring together OEMs, retailers/dealers and consumers. With its highly configurable integration and greater customer engagement capabilities, Tekion is enabling the best automotive retail experiences ever. Tekion employs close to 3,000 people across North America, Asia and Europe.
Job Description
We are looking for a Software Engineer II to join one of our Scrum teams building AI-native, event-driven services for automotive retail intelligence. This is a core contributor role for engineers with 2–4 years of experience who are ready to take end-to-end ownership of features, grow their distributed systems skills, and work in a high velocity environment that demands code quality, hexagonal architecture discipline, and genuine curiosity about AI-native engineering.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain Java (Spring Boot 3.x) backend services — implementing domain logic, REST APIs, Kafka event consumers/producers, and MongoDB/PostgreSQL persistence adapters following hexagonal architecture patterns.
- Build features across the full backend slice: domain model, port interface, adapter implementation, unit tests, and integration tests.
- Write integration tests using Testcontainers for MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Kafka, and Elasticsearch adapters — ensuring each adapter is tested independently from the domain core.
- Participate in design discussions, architecture reviews, and code reviews — actively learning from Staff and Senior engineers.
- Investigate and resolve bugs, performance issues, and Kafka consumer lag across services.
- Write clean, well-documented, testable code with consistent application of hexagonal design principles.
- Contribute to golden dataset test scenario design under the guidance of the Product Manager and SDET.
- Operate with ownership and curiosity in a fast-paced, startup environment.
Skills and Experience
- 2–4 years of backend engineering experience; Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field.
- Solid Java fundamentals: object-oriented design, Spring Boot, REST API implementation, and unit testing (JUnit 5).
- Working knowledge of at least one of: MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or Kafka — with willingness to develop depth across all three.
- Understanding of hexagonal architecture concepts (ports & adapters) — ability to implement adapters under the guidance of senior engineers.
- Familiarity with cloud environments (AWS), containerization (Docker), and CI/CD pipelines.
- Strong problem-solving skills, attention to code quality, and ability to receive and apply feedback quickly.
- Collaborative mindset and clear communication — comfortable asking questions and flagging blockers early.
Preferred Skills
- Exposure to Kafka producers and consumers in a production or learning context.
- Familiarity with Elasticsearch for search and analytics use cases.
- Curiosity about AI/ML systems — awareness of what scoring models, embeddings, and LLMs do at a systems level.
- Exposure to Redis or Aerospike for caching patterns.
Perks and Benefits
- Competitive compensation and generous stock options.
- Medical insurance coverage.
- Work with some of the brightest minds from Silicon Valley's most dominant and successful companies.
Tekion is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, victim of violence or having a family member who is a victim of violence, the intersectionality of two or more protected categories, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
For more information on our privacy practices, please refer to our Applicant Privacy Notice here.
What We Do
At Tekion, we believe that business applications don’t have to be boring. In fact, they should be simple, fun and cool! They should be as delightful to use as your favorite social or consumer application, yet powerful enough to seamlessly and efficiently run global businesses that provide unparalleled consumer experience without compromise. Founded by visionary entrepreneur and innovator Jay Vijayan, we are building the world’s best business applications on the cloud starting with the automotive retail industry. We inherently use cutting-edge technologies like big data, machine learning/AI, and human computer interaction (voice, touch, vision, sensors and IoT). We are inventing new technology along the way to overcome barriers and solve big problems, all while having a blast doing it! Our flagship product offering, Automotive Retail Cloud ™- an industry-first cloud-native retail platform, including all functionalities of a Dealer Management System (DMS) launched recently.
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