Head of Automotive Software

About Slate

At Slate, we've got one job: building a vehicle you'll fall in love with, right here in the USA. We believe that car buyers—not car companies—should call the shots. We like looking at a road, not a screen. We don't like paying for stuff we don't need.
We like picking out the stuff we do need. We think dings are badges, not blemishes. But we know not everyone likes what we like. So, we built you a Slate: you make it yours.

Who we are looking for:

Slate is looking for a Head of Software Development with a visionary approach to lead our software development in the electric vehicle space. Reporting directly to the Head of Digital, you will focus on defining and building our digital customer experience. You must be able to thrive and succeed in a fast-paced startup environment where your contributions have a direct impact on the company's direction and success and not be hindered by ambiguity or competing priorities. This is a high visibility, high impact role that will interact with all levels of leadership across Slate.

What you get to do:

• Lead and grow a team of exceptional backend and platform engineers, setting a high technical bar and fostering a culture of ownership, scalability, and quality.
• Architect and evolve Slate's core backend infrastructure to support a modern, modular vehicle ecommerce platform—from real-time pricing and inventory to reservation flows and digital ownership tools.
• Drive technical direction and long-term architecture strategy across services, APIs, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure to enable secure, performant, and resilient systems.
• Collaborate with product and UX partners to translate customer needs into robust backend capabilities that scale across web and mobile touchpoints.
• Champion best practices in software engineering—including CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and observability—ensuring teams deliver with speed and confidence.
• Serve as a key technical voice across the company, influencing critical decisions on data strategy, security, integration patterns, and system design.
• Mentor senior engineers and emerging leaders, cultivating technical depth and strong execution across multiple squads.
• Navigate ambiguity and startup-level complexity to deliver systems that directly impact Slate's growth, customer satisfaction, and operational excellence.
  
  

What you bring to the team:

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or equivalent work experience.
• 10 years of planning, designing, developing, and delivering consumer software experiences.
• 10 years of experience in full-stack mobile development – Android / iOS or modern web browsers and services, mainly in Java in a Linux or Unix environment.
• Proven expertise in backend systems development including microservices architecture, API design, cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and modern backend frameworks (Spring Boot, Node.js, etc.).
• Experience with data modeling, relational and non-relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB), and event-driven systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, etc.).
• 10 years of experience contributing to the architecture and design (architecture, design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and current systems.
• 7 years of engineering team management experience.
• Experience partnering with UX, product and program management teams.
• Experience leading architects and full stack development teams that support consumer-facing global web solutions.
• Experience delivering customer-driven software products at a high scale in a fast-paced, technology-first, rapid-growth company.
  
  

We want to work with people that reflect the communities in which we operate:

• Slate is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, marital status, parental status, cultural background, organizational level, work styles, tenure and life experiences. Or for any other reason.
• Slate is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at recar-talent_acquisition@slate.auto.
  
  

Seattle, WA Base Salary Range – $174,117 to $232,157

The stated pay scale reflects the range that Slate reasonably expects to pay for this position.  The actual pay rate and pay grade for this position will be dependent on a variety of factors, including an applicant's years of experience, unique skills and abilities, education, alignment with similar internal candidates, marketplace factors, other requirements for the position, and employer business practices. In addition to base pay, Slate also offers short-term and long-term incentive programs – 401k match, annual bonus and company equity, based on eligibility, along with a robust offering of benefit and wellness plans, HSA / FSA.