Director, CRM Platform & Product

Be essential at Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com, our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire, our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade, our reputation-based digital wholesale auction marketplace, Dealerclub, or our new Cars Commerce Media Network, Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All, encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challengeand Taking Ownership, fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing, even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don’t take our word for it. As a U.S. News & World Report Best Company to Work For in 2024, we're obsessive about the employee experience. We are among the top 20% being declared “Best” of our industry based on six critical factors that are important to employee wellbeing, like quality of pay, benefits, work life balance and more.

About the Role

Ready to own the technology engine that powers our entire customer journey? We are seeking a Director, CRM Platform & Product to drive the strategic evolution of our Salesforce ecosystem. This is a critical, high-visibility role where your vision will directly translate into revenue growth, operational efficiency, and a world-class customer experience across Sales, Marketing, and Service.

This role blends strategic product leadership, architectural foresight, and profound business acumen. You will serve as a platform evangelist and a strategic partner to the business, proactively identifying opportunities, championing innovation, and delivering measurable value that drives enterprise-level transformation. You will set the technical and product vision, drive strategic prioritization, and ensure execution of business plans through your team of architects, developers, and managers to foster platform adoption across the organization.

THIS ROLE MAY REQUIRE IN-PERSON INTERVIEWS.

What You’ll Do

Strategic Platform & Product Leadership

• Drive the enterprise CRM strategy and 12–18 month roadmap, ensuring direct alignment with GTM and enterprise business priorities.

• Proactively propose and advocate for AI-driven solutions, deep automation, and process improvements that deliver measurable business outcomes and ROI.

• Conduct user research to uncover needs, and build business cases that quantify impact through efficiency gains, automation, and AI capabilities.

• Influence senior stakeholders across all functional areas to ensure the CRM strategy is a key enabler of corporate goals.

• Ruthlessly prioritize investments based on maximizing business outcomes over technical complexity.

Platform Architecture & Execution

• Define and maintain the multi-year engineering vision, standards, and architecture for the CRM ecosystem (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, CPQ, Data Cloud/CDP).

• Architect scalable, secure, and integrated enterprise solutions that meet internal and customer needs, leveraging progressive architecture principles (composable, API-first).

• Drive the AI and automation strategy across the platform using tools like AgentForce, Einstein, and Flow.

• Partner with Enterprise Analytics to govern data quality and enhance reporting capabilities.

• Ensure rigorous adherence to modern engineering practices (CI/CD, automated testing) and maintain robust governance, data privacy, and regulatory compliance (e.g., SOX).

Team and Resource Management

• Lead a blended organization of internal staff (direct reports of 2 managers and 2 ICs) with a total team size including contracted partners of 20-30.  Team responsibilities are  across Product, Architecture, Engineering, QA, Administration, and Support

• Manage budget, resource allocation, offshore resourcing, and vendor ecosystems to maximize ROI and platform stability.

• Define clear scopes of work, SLAs, and governance processes for managed services and external vendor relationships.

• Recruit, develop, and retain top talent, mentoring and growing the team's capabilities while fostering an inclusive, innovative culture.

Enterprise Change Management & Adoption

• Lead change management efforts that drive successful platform adoption through effective training, documentation, communication, and a focus on user experience.

• Provide executive-level visibility into platform health, roadmap execution, risks, and measurable business outcomes.

• Represent the CRM platform's strategy and execution across all leadership forums and strategic planning sessions.

Who You Are

• Required Experience: 10+ years in enterprise technology with 5+ years leading Salesforce/CRM platform teams, including 3+ years managing managers with cross-functional teams 

• Leadership Attributes: Strategic product evangelist, business outcome prioritizer, and change agent focused on scalable solutions and measurable impact.

• Technical & Process Expertise: Deep understanding of CRM platform architecture, business systems strategy, integration approaches, and DevOps principles.

Our Salesforce platform is central to customer engagement, revenue growth, and operational excellence. This role offers the opportunity to shape how we leverage technology at the intersection of AI, data, and business systems—driving transformation across the enterprise. You’ll join a forward-thinking product and engineering organization that values innovation, impact, and customer success.

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans

• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up

• Generous PTO

• Refuel - a service based recognition program where employees receive additional paid time away to learn grow and reset

• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!

For US-based Positions: Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. Please note that we are unable to sponsor employment visas at this time.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. California Applicants: Click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Applicants. For current employees, please click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Employees.