Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform

Data Platform Engineer

Credit Acceptance is proud to be an award-winning company with local and national workplace recognition in multiple categories! Our world-class culture is shaped by dedicated Team Members who share a drive to succeed as professionals and together as a company. A great product, amazing people and our stable financial history have made us one of the largest used car finance companies nationally.

Our Engineering and Analytics Team Members utilize the latest technology to develop, monitor, and maintain complex practices that help optimize our success. Our Team Members value being challenged, are encouraged to express their ideas, and have the flexibility to enjoy work life balance. We build intrinsic value by partnering with all functions of our business to support their success and make strategic business decisions. We focus on professional development and continuous improvement while enjoying a casual work environment and Great Place to Work culture!

Outcomes and Activities :

• This position will work from home; occasional planned travel to an assigned Southfield, Michigan office location may be required. However, this position is permitted to work at a Southfield, Michigan office location if requested by the team member.
• Design and implement core components of the data platform (e.g., data lake, streaming infrastructure, DaaS, catalog), emphasizing scalability, reliability, and observability.
• Balance hands-on delivery with architectural foresight, contributing to cross-functional initiatives that strengthen the platform.
• Partner with data and engineering stakeholders to understand requirements and deliver effective, efficient solutions for data acquisition, transformation, and integration.
• Write unit and integration tests, validating software against acceptance criteria to ensure platform reliability.
• Apply and promote team standards for coding, documentation, and testing, ensuring maintainable and high-quality engineering practices.
• Conduct impact analysis to identify dependencies and assess potential risks of changes across applications and services.
• Develop a strong understanding of platform use cases and business processes to align technical solutions with organizational needs.
• Experiment with new tools and approaches, validate assumptions, and recommend solutions that improve the platform's capabilities.
• Participate in design and code reviews, providing constructive feedback and communicating changes effectively.
• Document platform components and designs, ensuring projects are maintainable and understandable by others.
• Troubleshoot and resolve production issues, proposing effective solutions to restore platform stability.
• Contribute to sprint commitments and actively engage in Agile practices, including retrospectives and process improvements.
• Engage in continuous learning, deepening knowledge of modern data platform technologies, distributed systems, and engineering best practices.

Competencies :

Customer Empathy : The ability to understand the perspectives, pain points, and experiences of customers. It involves actively putting oneself in the customer's shoes, comprehending their needs and challenges, and using that understanding to provide a better, more customer-centric experience.

Engineering Excellence : Bringing great craftsmanship and thought leadership to deliver an outstanding product that delights customers and solves for the business. This involves the pursuit and achievement of high standards, best practices, innovation, and superior solutions.

One Team : A collaborative approach across the organization, where individuals work together seamlessly, without boundaries, as a single, cohesive team. Shared goals, open communication, and mutual support create a sense of collective purpose. This enables teams to navigate challenges and pursue shared objectives more effectively.

Owner's Mindset : Adopting a set of behaviors that reflect a sense of responsibility, accountability, strategic thinking, and a proactive approach to managing your domain. As an owner, you understand the business and your domain(s) deeply and solve for the right outcome for the domain(s) and the business.

Requirements :

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a closely related field; or equivalent work experience

Minimum 5 years of software engineering experience, with recent hands-on experience building and maintaining data platforms or distributed systems in cloud environments

Strong knowledge of software engineering best practices, with practical experience building and operating data platforms, products, or solutions

Experience building and operating applications on cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, or GCP), including deploying and supporting containerized services (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS / EKS)

Familiarity with lakehouse principles (Delta Lake, Iceberg, or Hudi) and best practices for schema evolution, versioning, and performance optimization

Experience with observability practices (metrics, logs, tracing, alerting) and tools (e.g., Dynatrace, Splunk, CloudWatch) to ensure platform reliability

Knowledge of data storage technologies relevant to data platforms, including object stores (S3, ADLS, GCS), relational databases, and NoSQL systems

Awareness of data governance and security practices (e.g., access controls, encryption, compliance considerations), with the ability to design platform components that align with organizational standards

Solid understanding of distributed systems concepts (scalability, reliability, consistency, partitioning) and their application to data platforms

Experience working with enterprise-class applications where uptime, reliability, and scalability are essential

Strong programming skills in one or more languages commonly used for platform engineering (e.g., Python, Java, Scala, Go)

Demonstrated ability to mentor and coach less experienced engineers, contributing to team growth and technical maturity

Familiarity with Agile delivery practices and other software development lifecycle methodologies

Preferred :

Hands-on experience with lakehouse technologies (Delta, Iceberg, Hudi), beyond conceptual familiarity

Exposure to workflow orchestration frameworks (Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, Databricks Workflows)

Experience with CI / CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment

Exposure to observability tooling (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Dynatrace, Splunk) beyond basics

Experience debugging performance issues and optimizing systems for cost and scale

Financial services or FinTech industry experience

Knowledge and Skills :

Designs and implements platform components with a focus on scalability, reliability, and maintainability, following established standards

Collaborates with team members and partners to deliver high-quality solutions

Explores new tools or practices under guidance and contributes ideas to improve the platform

Participates in code reviews, shares knowledge with peers, and supports team-level improvements

Applies knowledge of cloud, data, and platform technologies to build effective solutions

Understands how technical work supports business outcomes and aligns with platform goals

Communicates clearly in technical discussions, design reviews, and documentation

Works independently on well-defined tasks and projects while seeking guidance on complex or ambiguous problems

Target Compensation :

A competitive base salary range from $130,047 - $190,735. This position is eligible for an annual variable cash bonus, between 7.5 - 15%. Final compensation within the range is influenced by many factors including role-specific skills, depth and experience level, industry background, relevant education and certifications.

Candidates who reside in the following major metropolitan areas may be eligible for a premium on top of the posted range based on their specific zone : San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, New York City, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Benefits :

Excellent benefits package that includes 401(K) match, adoption assistance, parental leave, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive medical / dental / vision and many nonstandard benefits that make us a Great Place to Work

Our Company Values :

To be successful in this role, Team Members need to be :

Positive by maintaining resiliency and focusing on solutions

Respectful by collaborating and actively listening

Insightful by cultivating innovation, accumulating business and role specific knowledge, demonstrating self-awareness and making quality decisions

Direct by effectively communicating and conveying courage

Earnest by taking accountability, applying feedback and effectively planning and priority setting

Expectations :

Re