Software Developer - AI & Automation

About the role

Vanguard Auto Group, operating dealerships in Arlington, Carrollton, Sherman, and Austin and representing Kia, GMC, and Volkswagen, seeks a hands‑on Software Engineer/Developer to build business applications, AI solutions, and automate dealership workflows. You will work directly with company leadership to turn ideas into practical software, connect existing systems, and improve applications based on employee feedback. The role focuses on software development, AI integration, and application performance, collaborating with the in‑house IT team for hosting and deployment.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, test, deploy, and maintain internal applications, dashboards, and automation tools.
• Expand and improve the Vanguard Ops platform and develop new applications based on business needs.
• Use AI coding assistants effectively while understanding, reviewing, and testing the code they generate.
• Connect applications with business systems through APIs, databases, file imports, and authorized browser automation.
• Build enterprise AI applications, including internal assistants, document‑processing tools, and workflow automation.
• Develop Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions that allow AI applications to use information from company documents, databases, and other business sources.
• Build AI agents that use software tools and APIs to carry out defined business tasks.
• Install, evaluate, and integrate open‑weight models running on local computers or company servers.
• Stay current on open‑weight model releases, AI coding tools, and local AI technologies; test relevant options and recommend practical improvements.
• Collaborate with the in‑house IT team to deploy applications and locally hosted AI models, identify hardware and hosting requirements, and support secure, reliable access across dealership locations.
• Implement application permissions, appropriate data handling, testing, logging, and error monitoring.
• Troubleshoot issues, improve