2027 Summer Intern - Research and Development - System Safety

General Motors; Warren (MI); Hybrid; USD 25,000 - 32,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation stipend

Job summary

General Motors Research & Development is seeking a System Safety Intern to contribute to research and thought leadership in safety assurance and evidence-based decision-making across evolving tech areas. You will develop safety analyses, assess evidence, and build safety cases for complex products, coordinating with engineering, AI/ML, cybersecurity, and legal teams.

You will synthesize claims with industry standards such as UL 4600, ISO 26262, ISO 21448, and AI safety guidelines, while ensuring

Qualifications

• Pursuit of an advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Engineering, Mathematics, CS, Robotics, Safety Management, or related technical field.
• Must be a current student.
• Green Card Holder or US Citizen.
• Relevant experience in systems engineering, system safety, safety assurance, or other complex software-intensive safety-critical environments.
• Demonstrated experience developing, supporting, or assessing safety cases, assurance cases, or equivalent structured safety arguments.
• Knowledge of functional safety and safety assurance concepts (ISO 26262, ISO 21448, UL 4600).
• Ability to decompose safety goals into clear requirements and evidence needs.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Passion for system safety research and safe deployment of complex technologies.

Responsibilities

• Conduct safety analyses and develop safety cases for complex products and safety-critical systems.
• Define evaluation approaches, review evidence, identify gaps, and communicate recommendations.
• Author and present safety-case materials for product submissions, audits, and regulatory audiences.
• Integrate evidence from systems engineering, AI/ML, functional safety, cybersecurity, validation, and product safety.
• Perform impact analyses when scope or context changes affect safety claims or evidence.
• Improve traceability and evidence-tracking processes across the engineering lifecycle.
• Surface safety gaps and emerging risks and drive timely escalation.
• Align safety-case claims with standards (UL 4600, ISO 26262, ISO 21448, AI safety).
• Research AI/ML safety validation, probabilistic safety arguments, and evidence sufficiency.

Skills

Advanced safety concepts

Safety case development

ISO/AI safety knowledge

Safety assurance

Decompose safety goals

Written and verbal communication

Leadership / program leadership

Team collaboration across disciplines

Research methodology

Education

MS or PhD in Engineering/Mathematics/CS/Robotics/Safety Management or related technical field

Current student status

US citizenship or Green Card holder

Tools

GSN familiarity

Job description

Job Description

Join General Motors Research & Development as a System Safety Intern. You will contribute research and thought leadership in system safety, safety assurance, and evidence-based decision-making across current and emerging technology areas.

Conduct research and work on the development, assessment, and continuous improvement of system safety analyses for complex products and safety-critical systems. As part of the system safety case development, evaluate safety arguments, evidence strategies, and sufficiency criteria to support safe technology development and align with regulatory expectations, industry best practices, and enterprise safety objectives.

GM R&D is seeking a System Safety Intern to work on research, assessment, and methodological advancement in system safety and safety assurance. You will perform safety analyses, develop and improve safety cases, define claims and sufficiency criteria with domain experts, integrate evidence across disciplines, and ensure alignment with product evolution, regulatory expectations, and industry best practices. The role works across engineering, research, AI/ML, systems engineering, functional safety, cybersecurity, validation, product safety, legal, regulatory, and leadership teams to strengthen traceability, evidence quality, and safety decisions.

What You’ll Do:

• Conduct the research, development, governance, and continuous improvement of safety analyses and system safety cases for complex products and safety-critical systems.
• Support system safety evaluation of newly developed technologies within R&D by defining evaluation approaches, reviewing evidence, identifying gaps, and communicating recommendations.
• Author and present safety-case materials for product submissions, audits, internal reviews, external assessments, and executive or regulatory audiences.
• Integrate and assess evidence from systems engineering, AI/ML, functional safety, cybersecurity, validation, product safety, and other relevant disciplines.
• Perform impact analyses when system scope, architecture, operating context, platform, or release changes affect safety claims, criteria, or evidence.
• Improve compliance, traceability, and evidence-tracking processes, including opportunities to automate safety-evidence collection across the engineering lifecycle.
• Surface safety gaps, evidence weaknesses, and emerging risks, and drive timely escalation and resolution through appropriate forums.
• Align safety-case claims with applicable standards, guidance, and best practices, including UL 4600, ISO 26262, ISO 21448, AVSC guidance, and ISO/PAS 8800.
• Research emerging approaches in AI/ML safety validation, probabilistic safety arguments, evidence sufficiency, and structured safety-case development; synthesize findings into recommendations.

Required Qualifications:

• Pursuit of an advanced degree (MS or PhD) in one of the following areas: Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science, Robotics, Safety Management, or a related technical field.
• Must be a current student
• Able to work fulltime, 40 hours per week during the summer months
• Green Card Holder or US Citizen
• Relevant experience in systems engineering, system safety, safety assurance, program leadership, or other complex software-intensive safety-critical environments.
• Demonstrated experience developing, supporting, or assessing safety cases, assurance cases, or equivalent structured safety arguments.
• Knowledge of functional safety and safety assurance concepts, including ISO 26262 (FuSa), ISO 21448 (SOTIF), ISO/PAS 8800 (AI safety), and UL 4600.
• Ability to decompose safety goals into clear requirements and evidence needs, synthesize ambiguous technical data, and evaluate evidence sufficiency.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical audiences.
• Passion for system safety research, safety assurance, and the safe deployment of complex technologies.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in automotive, advanced mobility, product safety, regulatory, certification, or safety-assurance research and practice.
• Understanding of AI/ML safety validation, statistical or probabilistic safety arguments, and evidence-sufficiency evaluation.
• Familiarity with Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) or similar structured argumentation frameworks.
• Experience with requirements management, traceability, and evidence management in safety-critical development lifecycles.
• Experience engaging with external assessors, regulators, standards bodies, research institutions, or industry consortia.

This position requires eligibility to access classified information at the Secret U.S. Security Clearance level for which the U.S. Government requires U.S. Citizenship. The successful candidate must have eligibility to obtain a security clearance at that level.

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. This includes direct company sponsorship, entry of GM as the immigration employer of record on a government form, and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (e.g., H1-B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc).

Work Arrangement:

Hybrid: This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Warren, MI three times per week, at minimum [or other frequency dictated by the business].

Benefits Overview

• GMwill provide aone-time lumpsum taxable stipend payment to eligible students selected for the2027Student Program - to help facilitate administration of relocation benefits, please apply using the permanent address you would move from.

Start dates for this internship role are May 24th & June 14th of 2027.

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.

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

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