Principal Engineer

TRADER Corporation is a trusted Canadian leader in online media, dealer and lender services. The company is comprised of AutoTrader.ca, AutoSync and Dealertrack Canada. AutoTrader.ca (AutoHebdo.net in Quebec) offers the largest inventory of new cars and used cars in Canada, receiving over 25 million monthly visits to its marketplace. With over 3,500 subscribers and counting, AutoSync is the largest and fastest growing dealer and OEM software provider in Canada. The platform's suite of connected automotive software solutions brings advertising, conversion and operational support together, synchronizing the entire retail process. AutoSync's diverse range of offerings includes: vAuto, EasyDeal, xtime, Motoinsight, Activix, TAdvantage and TRFFK. Dealertrack is Canada’s largest automotive financing portal, enhancing efficiency and profitability for all major segments of the automotive, marine, recreational vehicle, motorcycle and powersport retail industries. Over 6.5 million credit applications are submitted via the Dealertrack Canada portal each year. Visit tradercorporation.com to learn more..

 

Companies are coming to realize the power that leveraging integrated data effectively can have on their businesses. In all industries, business performance can be dramatically improved when companies act on the insights that organized, accessible data can provide into their internal processes and models. 

Like most companies AutoTrader has historically been a moderate user of data, however, recent changes in our strategy – with our overarching goal to become an Integrated Data Services Driven Organization, have caused the company to become very focused on developing a deeper level of expertise in how we engineer our applications to effectively manage our data assets.

Description

The Principal Engineer is an individual contributor role that is responsible for the technical application architecture. While they do not manage people, they must collaborate with multiple stake holders and be able to “lead without authority” to get their ideas implemented.

Principal Engineers are experts in technology but must also fully understand the business function of the application to select the most appropriate architecture implementation. Looking beyond individual requirements, the Principal Engineer must have a broad and comprehensive view across multiple teams and functional areas and sees the system as a whole.

The Principal Engineer looks ahead to the technological future of the application and creates strategic change plans and POCs to improve the reliability and performance of the application in a proactive manner.

·     Provide technical guidance in planning and executing product initiatives.

·     In collaboration with the Enteprise Architect team and engineering team Development Leads, review and recommend improvements to existing application design.

·     Work with product owners to analyze product requirements and provide technical and functional recommendations.

·     Collaborate with solution architects to design and drive the implementation of technology initiatives that integrate with the application.

·     Develop and promote reusable engineering patterns which can be used across all teams.

·     Schedule and lead engineering meetings to discuss new ideas, issues, and system status.

·     Evaluate and recommend new technologies and create POCs to improve system performance and reliability.

·     Identify scenarios where reuse and repurpose of existing solutions are less risky than new untested solutions

·     Evaluate and prioritize fixing of technical debt in collaboration with team leads, infrastructure engineers and product owners.  (Tools, applications, processes, manual activities, inconsistencies)

·     Select and implement application tracing mechanisms.

·     Perform system failure analysis and provide corrective actions.

·     Build detailed and comprehensive application architecture documentation and help establish documentation guidelines

·     Mentor engineers in technical excellence.

·       Ability to “Lead without Authority”

·       Ability to collaboratively build roadmaps, plans and strategies

·       Excellent analysis skills

·       Exceptional engineering skills

·       Deep knowledge of various technology stacks

·       Ability to understand complex applications

·       Advanced understanding of databases and various data storage solutions

·       Excellent written and verbal communication skills