Lead Engineer - AI

About the Role

CARS24 is seeking an experienced Senior Engineer/Assistant Engineering Manager to join our AI Team. This is not a data science or AI research role we're looking for a strong platform engineer who can architect, build, and lead the development of robust, scalable AI infrastructure that powers our intelligent applications at scale.

You'll be responsible for building the foundational AI platforms and services that enable our product teams to rapidly deploy and operate AI-powered features. This role requires deep engineering expertise combined with hands-on experience in modern AI/ML infrastructure.

What You'll Do

• Design and build scalable AI platforms and services that support multiple AI/ML use cases across CARS24
• Architect and implement production-grade AI agent systems, including RAG pipelines, vector databases, and LLM orchestration frameworks
• Lead the development of synchronous and asynchronous AI service APIs with focus on reliability, performance, and cost optimization
• Build streaming infrastructure for real-time LLM interactions using WebSockets and server-sent events
• Establish engineering best practices, code standards, and architectural patterns for the AI platform team
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to technical decision-making as we scale our AI capabilities
• Partner with ML engineers and product teams to translate AI/ML models into production-ready services
• Own end-to-end delivery of critical AI platform components from design through deployment and operations

What We're Looking For

Core Engineering Expertise:

• Python Expert: Deep proficiency in Python with strong knowledge of async programming, type systems, and performance optimization
• Java/Spring Advanced: Strong working knowledge of Java and Spring Boot for building enterprise-grade microservices
• 5-6 years of hands-on software engineering experience with a track record of building production systems at scale

AI Platform & Infrastructure:

• Solid understanding of AI agent architectures and orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar)
• Experience implementing RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems in production
• Hands-on experience with vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, ChromaDB, or similar)
• Knowledge of LLM APIs, prompt engineering, and managing model inference at scale
• Experience building both synchronous and asynchronous AI service architectures
• Understanding of LLM streaming patterns using WebSockets, SSE, or gRPC streaming

Software Engineering Fundamentals:

• Strong system design skills with ability to architect scalable, distributed systems
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Proficiency with APIs, microservices, message queues, and event-driven architectures
• Solid understanding of database design, caching strategies, and performance optimization
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, and observability tools

Strong Plus/Nice to Have

• Prior experience building AI platforms or AI-powered services in a product company
• Experience leading or mentoring engineering teams
• Hands-on experience with model serving frameworks (TensorFlow Serving, TorchServe, Triton, etc.)
• Knowledge of MLOps practices and tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases, Kubeflow)
• Experience with real-time data processing and streaming platforms (Kafka, Kinesis)
• Familiarity with embedding models, semantic search, and information retrieval systems
• Previous work in automotive, e-commerce, or marketplace platforms

What Success Looks Like

• Build and deploy production-ready AI platforms that serve millions of users reliably
• Establish technical standards that accelerate AI feature development across teams
• Create reusable AI infrastructure components that reduce time-to-market for new AI capabilities
• Lead by example in code quality, system design, and engineering excellence

Why Join CARS24's AI Team

• Work on cutting-edge AI infrastructure that directly impacts customer experience
• Shape the technical direction of AI platforms at a rapidly growing unicorn
• Collaborate with talented engineers, data scientists, and product leaders
• Opportunity to grow into engineering leadership roles as the team scales