Principal Software Engineering - Test System Modernization

GM of Canada Company; Markham; Hybrid; CAD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Healthcare, dental, vision

Pension plan

GM Vehicle Purchase Plan

Job summary

General Motors of Canada Company is seeking a Principal/Staff Software Engineer to shape and scale embedded software platforms for software‑defined vehicles. You will lead a major capability across teams, drive architecture decisions, and improve engineering effectiveness, release confidence, and product quality.

You will guide modernization of test systems, define standardized test execution and data reporting, and connect test tools, management, and diagnostics into a coherent engineering

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, software engineering, systems engineering or a related technical field; 10+ to 15+ years in software system validation and architecture across organizations.
• Experience with real-time software architecture and safety-critical product development.
• Proven track record building large-scale CI/CD, embedded test automation, and build-to-test pipelines.
• Strong knowledge of variation management, change-impact analysis and risk-based regression testing.
• Proficiency with embedded systems, Linux, Git, Python, Robot Framework, containers, and infrastructure as code.

Responsibilities

• Be a leading figure in software engineering productivity and effectiveness.
• Identify opportunities, strategies, and lead process improvements.
• Be hands-on by leading high impact efforts and cross-team initiatives.
• Communicate effectively, coach, and mentor teams.
• Analyze complex problems and connect multiple initiatives for higher value.

Skills

Embedded systems

CI/CD

Test automation

Python

Linux

Git

Robot Framework

APIs

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Databricks

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Job Description Vacancy Status

This posting is not for an existing vacancy within the organization and is open to new applications.

AI Disclosure

As part of the application process, Artificial Intelligence will be used in the hiring process for this role.

Work Arrangement

Hybrid: This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Markham or Oshawa office three times per week, at minimum.

The Role

General Motors is seeking a Principal/Staff 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.

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.

Qualifications / Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, software engineering, systems engineering or a related technical field; or equivalent practical experience. Typically, 10+ and 15+ 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.

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.

GM DOES NOT PROVIDE IMMIGRATION‑RELATED SPONSORSHIP

GM DOES NOT PROVIDE IMMIGRATION-RELATED SPONSORSHIP FOR THIS ROLE. DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS ROLE IF YOU WILL NEED GM IMMIGRATION SPONSORSHIP NOW OR IN THE FUTURE.

Benefits Overview

• Paid time off including vacation days, holidays, and supplemental benefits for pregnancy, parental and adoption leave;
• Healthcare, dental, and vision benefits;
• Life insurance plans to cover you and your family;
• Company and matching contributions to a Defined Contribution Pension plan to help you save for retirement;
• GM Vehicle Purchase Plan for you and your family

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