Principal Software Engineer- Test System Modernization

Job Description

The Role

General Motors is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to shape and scale the engineering platforms that build, test, integrate, validate, and deliver embedded software for software-defined vehicles. This role is for a hands-on technical leader who can turn ambiguous, cross-team problems into durable architecture, practical standards, and measurable improvements in engineering effectiveness, release confidence, and product quality. 

The successful candidate will lead a major capability across multiple teams, influence technical direction beyond their immediate organization, and connect software, tooling, infrastructure, test, and release activities into a coherent engineering system.

What You'll Do (Responsibilities):

• Be a critical leader of software engineering productivity and effectiveness.
• Identify opportunities, strategies, process improvements, and lead the change.
• Be hands-on by leading high impact efforts.
• Be a strong communicator, coach, and mentor.
• Analyze unusual and difficult problems effectively. 
• Ability to connect multiple initiatives together to deliver higher value.
• Visualize required innovation, learning and simplification in this space and transition the team to execute what is required to achieve. 
• Maintain command skills and empathy at the same time. 
• Lead the modernization of a large-scale embedded software test system.
• Define and modernize a standardized, fully automated, headless framework across virtual and physical environments to enable full-suite testing multiple times per day.

Key Deliverables

• Define the architecture and roadmap for standardized test execution, configuration and variation management, traceability, quality gates, regression selection, and results reporting.
• Establish change-impact analysis and risk-based regression strategies using Gears, Pure Variants, or equivalent tools to determine test applicability and optimize re-testing.
• Standardize test-result schemas, metadata, diagnostics, and artifacts; enable storage in Databricks for analytics, trend analysis, data mining, and reporting.
• Develop APIs and integrations connecting test execution, test management, issue tracking, failure triage, and diagnostic tools.
• Improve test robustness, failure triage, execution speed, and deployment efficiency across CI/CD pipelines and physical and virtual test environments.

Measures of Success

• Faster, more reliable test deployment and execution.

• More efficient regression testing through accurate change-impact analysis.

• Standardized, traceable test results accessible through Databricks and documented APIs.

• Faster failure identification, triage, and resolution.

• Clear test applicability across software, hardware, configuration, and platform variants.

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 experience validating software systems, including substantial experience leading architecture across organizations. 
• Deep understanding of software architecture for real time systems.
• Experience shipping high quality safety critical products. 
• Experience architecting large-scale CI/CD, embedded test automation, and build-to-test pipelines.
• Expertise in variation management, configuration comparison, change-impact analysis, and risk-based regression testing.
• Experience with test-result data modeling, Databricks, analytics, data mining, and API development.
• Proficiency with embedded systems, Linux, Git, Python, Bash, Robot Framework, containers, and infrastructure as code.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate automated diagnostics and issue-management workflows.

People Skills:

• Exceptional problem-solving and analytical abilities, with a keen attention to detail. 
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment. 
• Demonstrated ability to work in an action-oriented decision-making environment. 

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications):

• Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Machine Learning, AI, or a related field.
• Experience in embedded software development, automotive software, systems engineering, or safety-related toolchains.
• Familiarity with GM engineering tools, engineering workflows, or internal platform environments.
• Experience building AI assistants, coding agents, or domain-specific AI capabilities for engineers.
• Experience with knowledge systems, vector search, ranking, workflow orchestration, or code intelligence platforms.
• Experience supporting large engineering communities through reusable tools, templates, and automation.
• Experience evaluating AI quality in production systems using measurable outcomes such as acceptance rate, time saved, precision and recall, hallucination reduction, or workflow completion rate.

Company Vehicle

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 to purchase/lease a qualifying GM vehicle every four years unless one of a limited number of exceptions applies. 

Compensation

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 $238,700 and $365,700. 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. 

 
Benefits

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. 

 #LI-DH2

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About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.

Why Join Us 

We believe we all must make a choice every day – individually and collectively – to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.

Benefits Overview

From day one, we're looking out for your well-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.

Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.

All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws. 

We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire.

Accommodations

General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1-800-865-7580. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.