Solutions Architect - Platforms

8117 - Dallas Technology Hub - 5830 Granite Parkway, Plano, Texas, 75024

CarMax, the way your career should be! 

ABOUT THIS JOB:

The Solutions Architect is responsible for designs and oversight of applications for their assigned team(s). This involves the uniformity of application implementations under their influence, proper performance of those applications, and the team’s developed solutions are within enterprise direction. This position will be responsible for ensuring that software developed meets CarMax® architectural and quality expectations and requires knowledge about all applicable business processes.

The Solutions Architect works with the Enterprise Architecture team to develop standards and design patterns. This position will work with various Technology teams to champion the adoption of patterns, platforms, and architectural tools.

Solution Architects provide mentorship and are asked to provide positive and developmental feedback and capitalize on teachable moments to grow others. This position is responsible for the technical training of associates.

Solution Architect for an industry leader

At CarMax, we are fueled by a common goal: creating an iconic car-buying experience that is fair, accessible, and joyful for all. As a solutions architect, you'll be at the forefront of driving technical innovation alongside several product teams who are creating seamless platforms for our customers and associates.

You are: Able to balance product needs with business goals and know how to deliver technical solutions that enhance business value. Highly collaborative between enterprise architecture and product engineering teams, combining the best from both to create solutions. Creative, curious, and highly analytical, you never stop learning and thrive on constant change in the digital ecosystem. From inception to completion, you will develop tools and technology, partnering with multiple teams. Overall, you will have a direct impact on improving the performance of our business and ensuring customers and associates can have an iconic experience.

We are: A group of teams working in a fast-paced, highly collaborative, environment to efficiently progress every vehicle at CarMax from purchase to sale (and sometimes more interesting paths) – resulting in happy customers and engaged associates. Innovation is at the heart of what we do.

Together we’ll be:  A passionate technology team, creating efficient and scalable systems that modernize our technology footprint. Working collaboratively and creatively as part of a close-knit department, you will be a key part of the solutioning process: driving the technical strategy, tackling complex business problems, and implementing new products.

What you will do – Essential responsibilities

• Refine and evolve the technical strategy to build a foundation upon which we can efficiently innovate and modernize business capabilities.
• Maintain a broad understanding of all aspects of the teams’ technical software requirements including security, scalability, and usability.
• Build consensus and acceptance of improvements and changes to CarMax development patterns, standards, and processes.
• Influence the technical direction of others to drive all projects to successful completion within the architectural guardrails.
• Courageously drive strategic initiatives and challenge upward and across the Technology enterprise when necessary.
• Effectively communicate architectural standards and best practices to engineers, architects, and business partners.
• Drive through obstacles and time constraints to successfully deliver a project to completion.
• Compare and contrast alternative approaches to meet objectives while assessing risk both quantitatively and qualitatively.
• Effectively estimate time required for technical efforts of all sizes.
• Effectively communicate to tailor the message to the audience, facilitate group discussions with diplomacy, and seek diverse opinions.
• Leverage excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills and perform well in high pressure or stressful situations.
• Evaluate long term impacts when making recommendations and decisions.

• Guide and mentor engineers on our product teams.
• Participate and influence in an environment including discovery, design, development, and testing.
• Stay on top of industry trends and best practice to continuously improve what we do and ensure our experiences are the best they can be.
• Actively participate in the fun, trusting culture of CarMax where candor and integrity are essential and freedom is provided to operate independently, putting people over process and control.
• Learning, designing, and implementing architectural styles and patterns into our products to solve common problems with systems.
• Audit responsible product teams for performance, cost and quality improvements while increasing our pace of experimentation and innovation.
• Discover technology trends in the industry to inform partners on what is entering and exiting the market.
• Understand our customer and associate personas and their journeys throughout the car buying cycle, making data driven decisions.
• Define a flexible technical strategy that helps us evolve our Inventory Platform
• Evaluate our competitors, presenting findings and recommendations from market data.

What technologies you'll be working with

This role requires hands-on work in technologies such as Azure PaaS (Functions, App Services, App Insights, Structured/Unstructured data storage, Redis, and others), Kafka, Kubernetes, .NET Core, Azure DevOps for CI/CD, load testing / automated testing tools, Splunk, and API management systems.

Qualifications and requirements

• 8+ years of application development experience
• 5+ years in a principal engineering or architect role
• Deep knowledge in architecture designs and patterns
• Extensive experience in Microsoft Azure
• Extensive experience in .NET, CosmosDB, Redis, and Kafka
• Experience with API design, microservice architectures, and messaging paradigms highly preferred.
• Solid understanding of DevOps capabilities such as automated testing, continuous integration, and continuous delivery preferred.
• A degree in Computer Science or a related discipline or equivalent experience
• Proven ability to mentor and develop others.
• Exceptional communication skills

Work Location and Arrangement: This role will be based out of the Richmond, VA CarMax Technology Innovation Center or the Dallas, TX Technology Hub and have a Hybrid work arrangement.

Work Authorization: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

About CarMax

CarMax disrupted the auto industry by delivering the honest, transparent, and high-integrity experience customers want and deserve. This innovative thinking around the way cars are bought and sold has helped us become the nation’s largest retailer of used cars, with over 200 locations nationwide.

Our amazing team of more than 25,000 associates work together to deliver iconic customer experiences. Along the way, we help every associate grow their career and achieve their best, at work and in their community. We are recognized for our commitment to training and diversity and are one of the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For®.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:

CarMax is committed to bringing together people from different backgrounds and perspectives, providing employees with a safe, welcoming, and inclusive work environment.

CarMax is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, and any other characteristics protected by law.

Upon an applicant's request, CarMax will consider reasonable accommodation to complete the CarMax Job Application.