Sr. Principal Engineer

8116 - Midtown Office - 2220 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23220CarMax, the way your career should be! 

About this job

At CarMax, we are constantly delivering new technology platforms and capabilities to our Associates.  As a Senior Principal Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in enhancing the associate experience by designing and delivering innovative technology solutions. As a key technical leader, you’ll partner closely with business stakeholders to envision, architect, and advance a modern software environment that empowers every associate.

What you will do – Essential Responsibilities

• Drive the migration of legacy systems to Azure cloud infrastructure, with a primary focus on building highly resilient, compliant, maintainable platforms that prioritize end-to-end observability and proactive data discrepancy monitoring.
• Design and deliver robust, scalable REST APIs and abstraction layers for core HR SaaS systems (e.g., UKG, Workday), with a strong backend focus and contributions to frontend solutions such as the Support site.
• Coach, mentor, inspire and develop engineering team members—raising skill levels, driving adoption of modern SDLC, DevOps, and automation best practices, and serving as the technical ‘north star’ for engineering excellence
• Establish and strongly advocate disciplined SDLC practices, ensuring delivery of reliable, scalable, observable, and maintainable solutions using best-in-class technology stacks.
• Participate heavily in code reviews, technical troubleshooting, and implementation, maintaining direct ownership of critical system components.
• Collaborate with architects and lead devs to ensure alignment with architectural best practices and standards, while serving as a technical subject matter expert through hands-on engineering.
• Establish patterns that balance innovation with cost, reliability, security, supportability and compliance in a regulated HR environment.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, learning, and open feedback.

Purpose of the role

You will be a highly experienced technical leader who guides the technical direction and innovation of projects, while also mentoring and empowering other engineers. They are responsible for making key decisions on architecture, tooling, scalability, and performance. This role involves collaborating across teams, driving strategic initiatives, and ensuring alignment with the overall technology strategy.

Qualifications and Requirements

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Decision Science, Engineering, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent alternative education, skills, and/or practical experience is required and 8+ years of relevant work experience or
• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Decision Science, Engineering, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent alternative education, skills, and/or practical experience is required and 6+ years of relevant work experience
• 8+ years coding experience in C#
• 8+ years of experience designing, developing, and deploying solutions on Microsoft Azure using services such as App Services, Functions, Cosmos DB, Azure DevOps, API Management, Blob Storage, and Service Bus.
• Experience implementing cloud-native architectures in Azure, including microservices, automated testing, and CI/CD.
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (ARM, Bicep, or Terraform) for Azure deployments, bicep preferred
• Strong experience designing, developing, and maintaining REST APIs
• Strong understanding of Azure security, networking, identity (Azure AD), and monitoring
• Proven experience establishing developer-owned automated testing frameworks.
• Experience with modern CarMax enterprise design patterns and practices preferred but not required.
• Strong knowledge of noSQL and relational databases
• Eagerness and ability to learn new SaaS platforms such as UKG and Workday; prior experience with HR systems is a plus, but not required

Work Location and Arrangement: This role will can based out of the Richmond, VA Technology Innovation Center or our Dallas 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. Sponsorship will not be considered for this role.

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, genetic information, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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