Job Description
This role is based remotely, but if the candidate lives within a 50 miles radius of a GM hub, they will be expected to report to the location three times a week (or other frequency dictated by your manager).
General Motors is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to set technical direction for the engineering platforms that build, test, integrate, validate, and deliver embedded software for software-defined vehicles. This role is for an enterprise-level technical authority who can define the future-state engineering system, resolve architectural issues that span organizations and domains, and turn strategy into durable platforms, standards, and operating mechanisms.
The successful candidate will shape direction across multiple technical areas and organizations, advise senior and executive leadership on complex tradeoffs, and create alignment across embedded software, cloud, simulation, test, release, cybersecurity, quality, and supplier ecosystems. The role may align to one or more of the four specialization areas below.
Identify systemic constraints and opportunities across the software lifecycle, then define the strategy, investment priorities, and sequencing required to address them.
Resolve the most ambiguous and consequential architectural tradeoffs spanning organizations, product lines, suppliers, technology stacks, and delivery cadences.
Establish enterprise-level principles, standards, governance, reliability expectations, and decision frameworks that scale beyond a single program or team.
Create leverage through platforms, automation, reusable patterns, data, and operating models that materially improve engineering effectiveness and product outcomes.
Influence senior and executive leaders through clear recommendations grounded in technical judgment, risk, cost, quality, and measurable business impact.
1. Virtualization and CI infrastructure
Set the strategy for a scalable virtual development platform spanning embedded, simulation, and cloud workloads. Define enterprise architecture and standards for CI/CD, GitOps, Kubernetes, Terraform and infrastructure as code, progressive delivery, artifact and environment management, security, compliance, and observability. Connect virtualized development to the broader vehicle software lifecycle and guide adoption across organizations.
Visualization and CI-specific basic qualifications
Experience establishing enterprise standards for security, compliance, progressive delivery, artifact flows, and observability.
2. Continuous integration and quality gating
Set the end-to-end architecture and policy for how vehicle software is built, composed, validated, promoted, and released. Define the quality-gating model, mainline-protection strategy, evidence standards, integration controls, and release-readiness framework across component, pillar, system, virtual, physical, and release-train flows. Establish the metrics and operating mechanisms that make quality signals trustworthy and delivery risk visible.
CI and Quality-related basic qualifications
Deep understanding of MCU and SoC build systems, embedded Linux, AUTOSAR, Yocto, containers, cross-compilation, or vehicle deployment workflows.
Experience governing GitHub Enterprise or comparable platforms, artifact promotion, virtual and hardware validation, and secure delivery controls.
3. Test-system modernization
Set the long-term architecture and modernization strategy for embedded test execution across virtual and physical environments. Establish common approaches to configuration and variation management, change-impact analysis, risk-based regression, result-data modeling, diagnostics, APIs, analytics, and failure triage. Create a connected test ecosystem that improves traceability, execution efficiency, learning from test data, and decision quality across the vehicle software lifecycle.
Test-specific basic qualifications
Deep expertise in variation management, configuration comparison, change-impact analysis, and risk-based regression strategies.
Experience defining common test-result data models, APIs, analytics, diagnostics, and integrations across multiple engineering organizations.
Demonstrated ability to establish enterprise test standards that improve traceability, execution efficiency, failure triage, and decision quality.
4. Build-system modernization
Set the enterprise strategy for scalable embedded build systems and developer productivity. Define migration and convergence patterns for legacy Make or shell workflows and Bazel-based systems; establish standards for rules, toolchains, platforms, reproducibility, caching, security, provenance, and release integration; and guide adoption across repositories, teams, and product lines. Evaluate emerging AI-assisted engineering capabilities using clear quality, adoption, and productivity measures.
Build System-specific basic qualifications
Experience defining reusable rules, macros, toolchains, platforms, repository standards, artifact provenance, and reproducible build practices.
Demonstrated ability to guide adoption and measure quality, reliability, capacity, developer feedback, and productivity outcomes across organizations.
Establish principles, standards, governance, and decision rights that align independent teams and delivery organizations.
Lead the resolution of cross-domain technical risks involving architecture, quality, security, reliability, cost, scalability, and delivery continuity.
Advise senior and executive leadership on investment choices, program risk, platform health, and tradeoffs between local optimization and enterprise value.
Convene architecture reviews and technical communities that create durable alignment across engineering, validation, cloud, cybersecurity, quality, program management, and suppliers.
Sponsor high-leverage platform capabilities, automation, data models, and self-service experiences that improve outcomes at scale.
Represent GM’s technical direction with internal and external partners while maintaining a high bar for safety, quality, security, and customer impact.
Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications):
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, software engineering, systems engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Typically, 15 or more years of experience developing, integrating, deploying, or validating software systems, including substantial experience leading architecture across organizations.
Strong experience with production engineering platforms, software delivery systems, or engineering productivity capabilities; proficiency in Python and at least one additional language used in software or engineering-tooling environments.
Experience designing or governing systems involving embedded software, Linux, Git, CI/CD, cloud platforms, infrastructure as code, test automation, artifact management, data, APIs, or platform reliability, as applicable to the selected specialization.
What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications):
Experience in automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, or another embedded, real-time, regulated, or safety-critical environment.
Knowledge of functional safety, ISO 26262, cybersecurity engineering, ASPICE, MISRA, AUTOSAR, or related engineering practices.
Experience with vehicle-level integration and validation, including SIL, CoSIM, vECU, HIL, benches, physical systems, or other virtual and hardware-based environments.
A record of creating enterprise standards, platform strategies, technical communities, developer self-service, reliability objectives, or measurable productivity improvements.
Reduced systemic friction and risk across build, test, integration, release, and operational workflows.
Higher confidence in software quality, traceability, security, release readiness, and engineering data.
Durable platform adoption and measurable improvement in speed, reliability, capacity, reuse, and developer effectiveness.
Upon successful completion of a motor vehicle report review, you will be eligible to participate in a company vehicle evaluation program, though which you will be assigned a General Motors vehicle to drive and evaluate. Note: program participants are required topurchase/lease a qualifying GM vehicle every four years unless one of a limited number of exceptions applies.
The compensation information is a good faith estimate only. It is based on what a successful applicant might be paid in accordance with applicable state laws. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position, as well as geography of the selected candidate.
The salary range for this role is 226,000 and 407,100. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position.
Bonus Potential: An incentive pay program offers payouts based on company performance, job level, and individual performance.
GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs. Benefit options include medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan, sickness and accident benefits, life insurance, paid vacation & holidays, tuition assistance programs, employee assistance program, GM vehicle discounts and more.
This role is based remotely, but if the selected candidate lives within a specific mile radius of a GM hub, they will be expected to report to the location three times a week {or other frequency dictated by your manager}.
The selected candidate will be required to travel <25% for this role.
This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.
About GM
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