Distinguished Software Engineer

Credit Acceptance

. Set the company’s multi-year enterprise technical strategy and target architecture .

Posted 11/10/2026full-timeUnited StatesSeniorLead💰 $279,000 - $390,600 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

Use this summary to align your resume positioning with the role.

Demonstrates expertise in enterprise technical strategy, architecture design, and cloud migration, with a strong focus on agentic AI systems and modern data platforms. Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams and develop engineering talent while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Enterprise Technical StrategyDistributed Systems ArchitectureCloud MigrationAgentic AI SystemsRegulatory Compliance

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Software EngineeringArchitecture DesignCloud MigrationMachine Learning PlatformData Platform ArchitectureCode ReadingProofs of ConceptIncident AnalysisChange-Data-Capture IngestionReal-Time Pricing Architecture

Soft Skills

Strong Written CommunicationInfluence Without AuthorityTeam Development

Tools & Technologies

AWSDatabricksModel Context ProtocolAI-Native SoftwareLatency Remediation

Certifications & Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer ScienceCouncil for Higher Education Accreditation

Industry Keywords

Regulated IndustryAuditSecurityCompliance

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSCloudDistributed Systems

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Set the company’s multi-year enterprise technical strategy and target architecture
Define end-state architecture across originations, servicing, marketplace, data, and AI
Own enterprise agentic AI architecture across business and internal workflows
Establish governed agent discovery and tool/data access using the Model Context Protocol
Define agent identity, authorization, observability, evaluation, cost controls, auditability, and human decision boundaries
Set strategy for migrating transactional workloads to AWS and analytical workloads to Databricks
Own resilience and recovery architecture for the target state
Define change-data-capture ingestion, streaming, and modern warehouse architecture
Architect real-time pricing, credit model serving, scorecard updates, and experimentation platforms
Own unified vehicle inventory, consumer search, and lead routing architecture
Define AI-native software specification, generation, review, testing, and deployment practices
Own performance instrumentation, latency remediation, peak-event readiness, and degradation levers
Move systems from project-shaped architecture toward owned platforms with clear contracts
Drive two-week requirement-to-production iteration goals and make architectural recommendations
Stay hands-on through design reviews, proofs of concept, code reading, and incident analysis
Influence teams and executives without formal authority and develop staff and principal engineers
Report directly to the Chief Technology Officer
Publish architecture decisions, tradeoffs, interfaces, plans, and measurable success criteria

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or closely related field of study; or equivalent work experience
Minimum 10 years of software engineering experience or comparable depth of experience
Track record of setting and delivering multi-year technical strategy at enterprise scale as an individual contributor
Depth in distributed systems architecture and at least two specified areas: agentic or LLM-based systems in production; large-scale cloud migration of transactional systems; modern data platform and lakehouse architecture; machine learning platform and model serving; high-traffic consumer or marketplace applications
Production architecture ownership of agentic or LLM-based systems, including governed tool and data access, evaluation, and failure modes
Demonstrated ownership of legacy-to-modern migration of business-critical systems, including sequencing, cost case, and failure modes
Hands-on experience reading code, writing proofs of concept, joining design reviews, and participating in incident analysis
Evidence of influence without authority across organizational boundaries, including executive-level direction changes
Strong written communication
Ability to develop staff and principal engineers and raise the technical bar of engineers not directly managed
Experience delivering in a regulated industry or ability to work within audit, security, and compliance constraints
Must reside in or be willing to relocate to the greater Southfield, Michigan area, greater Bellevue, Washington area, or San Francisco Bay Area, California
Required degrees must be earned at institutions accredited by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation or equivalent

Benefits

Comp & perks

Equity
Annual cash bonuses
401(K) match
Adoption assistance
Parental leave
Tuition reimbursement
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
Nonstandard benefits
Hybrid work model with two work-from-home days per week