Software Engineer

About the role

RTA is an AI-forward company in the practical sense: engineers use AI tooling daily, the company pays for it, no approval is needed to try new tools, and AI-powered features are on the actual product roadmap. This role is for a Software Engineer III who enjoys building robust software that powers real products, turning messy requirements into elegant code, and hunting down performance bottlenecks. The position is about crafting scalable, high-quality code, performing insightful code reviews, and keeping systems secure and reliable.

What great looks like here

• You're a force multiplier, not just a fast typist — remembered for the test harness, deploy script, or documentation that made everyone else quicker, not personal ticket count.
• You close loops without asking permission: take a vaguely worded customer complaint, find the actual defect, ship the fix, and communicate it's done, all within a week without an authorization meeting.
• You've owned an incident end to end: diagnosed it, fixed it, wrote the postmortem, and made it not happen again.
• You delete code — tell us about a system you removed or simplified, not just one you built.
• You take ownership and initiative, identifying how to make processes and products better without waiting to be told.

AI at RTA (required)

• You work agentically, not with autocomplete. You've used Claude Code, Codex, or similar to drive multi-file refactors, migrations, and test coverage — not just accept single-line suggestions.
• You maintain the context files, rules, and prompts that make those tools work for a whole team, not just for you.
• You've shipped an LLM-backed feature and dealt with the consequences: nondeterministic output in test suites, token cost surprises, latency the UI had to absorb, guardrails on data that cannot be wrong. Tell us what broke and what you changed.
• You have an eval habit — you can explain how you knew an AI feature actually got better, rather than just felt different.
• You know when not to use a model. Some customer data (DOT compliance, warranty claims, parts inventory) must never be answered probabilistically, and you can tell which parts.
• Bring proof: a repo, an eval suite, a rules file, an internal tool you built for your team. Anything real counts for more than another year of experience on paper.

Cultural fit

In general, someone who:

• Is passionate about serving others.
• Takes pride in being a Software Engineer and finds fulfillment in seeing the team's solutions succeed and grow.
• Is comfortable on a team that thrives on healthy conflict — people with thin skin need not apply.
• Passionately cares about clients by helping them be more successful (clients are fleet managers, parts clerks, and automotive technicians maintaining everything from squad cars to school buses).
• Thinks of themselves less, while not thinking less of themselves — other-centric, compassionate, and self-assured.
• Is willing to lift boxes, clean floors, and hold doors if that's what it takes, because no job is beneath them.
• Loves to read, learn, grow, and stretch. Bonus points for each book read by Patrick Lencioni.

Specifically for this job, someone who:

• Has 4–7 years of professional software development experience, with at least 2 years hands-on building production-grade applications in Node.js.
• Works proficiently in Node.js, JavaScript (and/or relevant frameworks), and MSSQL. TypeScript experience is a big plus.
• Has shipped with AI (see AI section above — this is not optional).
• Understands and uses Docker for containerization and AWS for hosting and deployment.
• Uses GitHub as the source repository and is comfortable with pull requests and code reviews.
• Designs REST APIs and is familiar with SOA principles.
• Thrives on collaboration with product managers, developers, QA, and engineering leadership to scope requirements and deliver effective solutions.
• Writes secure, maintainable, well-documented code that others can easily build on.
• Responds calmly and quickly to last-minute changes, with tact and poise.
• Communicates effectively with concise, solutions-oriented feedback.

Requirements

• 4–7 years of relevant experience in software engineering roles.
• 3+ years of hands-on Node.js experience.
• Demonstrated experience building with AI: professional experience using AI-assisted development tools as part of your regular workflow is required. Experience shipping LLM-powered product features is strongly preferred.
• Proficiency with JavaScript frameworks (Express, React, Vue, or similar), Node.js, TypeScript, MSSQL, Docker, and AWS.
• Familiarity with REST/SOA principles and microservice architectures.
• Proficient with GitHub (branching, merging, code reviews, pull requests).
• Bachelor's degree not required but preferred, especially in computer science or a related field.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and maintain features: clean, scalable code in Node.js, JavaScript frameworks, and MSSQL.
• Architect and integrate: build RESTful services and integrate microservices following SOA principles.
• Code reviews: peer review for quality, security, and maintainability.
• Collaborate across teams: work with Product, QA, and other engineers to clarify requirements, troubleshoot, and refine features.
• Build AI-powered features: use AI tooling to move faster, and take real ownership of AI-powered feature work as it lands on the roadmap.
• Deploy and monitor: Docker for containerization, AWS for hosting, sound deployment and monitoring practice.
• Champion best practices: share knowledge, propose improvements, refine internal processes.
• Ensure performance and scalability: analyze system performance, diagnose bottlenecks, implement optimizations.

What success looks like

By day 90:

• Independently delivered a meaningful customer-facing feature to production, start to finish, with appropriate support when needed.
• Joined the on-call rotation and resolved a production issue without escalating.
• Made one measurable improvement to the team's tooling, tests, documentation, or AI workflow that at least one teammate now uses daily.
• Given code reviews your teammates describe as useful rather than rubber-stamp.

By the end of year one:

• Taken end-to-end ownership of a service or domain area, including its reliability and its roadmap input.
• Contributed meaningfully to at least one AI-powered feature that reached production customers.
• Measurably improved something we track: p95 latency on a key endpoint, flaky test count, deploy time, or defect escape rate.
• Made onboarding into your area faster for the next engineer, because of docs or tooling you built.

How we'll evaluate

• A conversation with the hiring manager about your work and how you use AI tooling.
• A team conversation to evaluate mutual fit and discuss your technical experience, decisions, and problem-solving approach.

Compensation and work location

Total compensation for the role is between $160,000 and $190,000 annually, depending on experience. This is a full-time, fully remote US role, with occasional travel to the Glendale, AZ headquarters for team gatherings. The position is classified as exempt and is not eligible for overtime pay.

Benefits

• 401(k) with 6% Safe Harbor match (100% vested day one)
• Flexible PTO model built on trust and manager-approved time off
• Cigna Dental, Vision and Medical — PPO and HSA medical plan options with company HSA contributions ($780–$1,950 annually)
• Garner Health HRA program: up to $1,000 individual / $2,000 family reimbursement opportunity
• Wellness rewards up to $350 annually
• Virtual care and mental health support resources