Engineering Group Manager: Systems Engineering - Body Controls Systems

General Motors; Warren (MI); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors seeks an Engineering Group Manager for the Mechatronics/Body Systems team. You will lead engineers who design and test systems that bridge vehicle controls with hardware implementations across Lighting, Visibility, and Secure Vehicle Access products.

You will own the Body Systems strategy, oversee requirements, architecture, interfaces, and verification, while partnering with safety, quality, and regulatory teams to ensure robust, safe, and compliant vehicle systems across GM's

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering required.
• 7+ years of engineering experience in system design, embedded controls, data analytics, or automotive development.
• Experience with safety concepts, hazard analyses, and regulatory considerations.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong problem-solving skills and effective communication with senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead a multidisciplinary Mechatronics/Body Systems team responsible for system definition, requirements, architecture, integration, verification, validation, and lifecycle support.
• Own the Body Systems strategy and technical direction, including interfaces, hardware/software allocation, and diagnostic dependencies.
• Govern requirements decomposition and traceability from vehicle requirements through system and test evidence.
• Lead development and quality of system specifications, interface definitions, and related engineering artifacts.
• Ensure configuration control and cross-team communication of design decisions and changes.
• Provide technical leadership for end-to-end verification, validation, and API development support.
• Define verification strategies addressing nominal and degraded conditions and safety considerations.
• Partner with safety, regulation, quality, and product teams to ensure compliance evidence is complete and retained.
• Drive technical governance, risk management, and readiness for program milestones.
• Mentor engineers and leaders, foster a collaborative culture, and drive continuous improvement.

Skills

Technical leadership

Systems engineering

Cross-functional collaboration

Decision making under ambiguity

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Master's degree in Engineering (preferred)

Tools

Rhapsody models

Job description

The Role

The Mechatronics Body Systems team drives the development of systems in the Lighting and Visibility and Secure Vehicle Access Products space. There’s never been a more exciting time to join us as we shape the critical interactions in the Body Electronics space.

Job Description

The Role

The Mechatronics Body Systems team drives the development of systems in the Lighting and Visibility and Secure Vehicle Access Products space. There’s never been a more exciting time to join us as we shape the critical interactions in the Body Electronics space.

As an Engineering Group Manager for the Mechatronics/Body Systems team, you’ll lead engineers who develop and test systems to meet the complex interactions between vehicle controls and actual realization in H/W.

This team partners across many organizations to deliver solutions and directly influences product quality, customer satisfaction, and reliability for the entire GM portfolio. This is an assignment where leadership, creativity, initiative, analytical thinking, deep customer insight, and exceptional collaboration are crucial and celebrated.

What You'll Do

• Lead a multidisciplinary Mechatronics/ Body Systems engineering team responsible for system definition, requirements, architecture, integration, verification, validation, launch readiness, and lifecycle support for Lighting and Visibility and Secure Vehicle Access Agile Release Teams which includes Closures, Interior and Exterior Lighting, Power Glass and Shades, Variable Light Transmissive Roofs, Folding Tops, and related Body Systems products.
• Own the Body Systems engineering strategy and technical direction, including system boundaries, functional architecture, operating modes, interfaces, hardware/software allocation, diagnostic, communication dependencies, and interactions with infotainment, vehicle controls, power modes, cybersecurity, electrical architecture, and cloud-based services.
• Establish accountability for clear, complete, feasible, and verifiable system requirements. Govern decomposition and traceability from vehicle and feature requirements through system, hardware, software, test case, and validation-result levels.
• Lead the development and quality of Body Feature technical Specifications, System Technical Specifications, requirements traceability, Rhapsody models, interface definitions, and related System Engineering work products.
• Ensure requirements architecture, design decisions, assumptions, and changes are configuration controlled, impact assessed, reviewed and communicated across affected teams.
• Provide technical leadership for the Testable Functionality Rollout Plan (TFRP), system integration, end-to-end testing, API development support, hardware/software integration, and system-level verification and validation.
• Define and approve verification and validation strategies that address nominal, boundary, degraded, environmental, diagnostic, misuse, communication-loss, and failed-component conditions.
• Partner with System Safety and Product Safety organizations to ensure appropriate hazard analyses, safety goals, functional and technical safety concepts, safety requirements, DFMEAs, fault trees, safety cases, diagnostic strategies, safe-state behavior, and fault-reaction requirements are completed and linked to verification evidence.
• Ensure safety risks are identified early, objectively assessed, escalated through the appropriate governance path, and not traded away for timing, cost, or feature content.
• Lead Body Systems regulatory and compliance readiness by identifying applicable vehicle regulations and standards, translating them into system requirements, coordinating compliance strategies, and ensuring validation and certification evidence is complete and retained.
• Partner with Regulation, Certification, Product Safety, Quality, Program, and Feature Owner organizations to manage regulatory interpretations, applicability decisions, design impacts, deviations, waivers, and required revalidation throughout the product lifecycle.
• Govern technical readiness for program milestones, including requirements maturity, architecture maturity, safety and regulatory status, test coverage, open-risk disposition, validation evidence, supplier readiness, and launch approval recommendations.
• Drive cross-functional problem solving with software, hardware, controls, customer experience, quality, validation, manufacturing, service, suppliers, and program organizations to resolve complex system issues and prevent recurrence.
• Establish clear RASIC ownership for requirements, architecture, safety artifacts, regulatory deliverables, test plans, validation evidence, issue closure, and launch decisions.
• Build a healthy and collaborative team environment by removing obstacles, enabling flow, fostering continuous improvement, and creating a culture of technical accountability and fearless escalation.
• Mentor and develop engineers and technical leaders at all levels through coaching, career planning, technical reviews, succession planning, and ongoing feedback that accelerates growth.
• Set clear objectives, measure performance, manage workload and resources, and hold team members accountable to high technical, behavioral, safety, quality, and delivery standards.
• Build organizational capability through recruiting, skills development, cross-training, knowledge management, and effective global workshare planning.
• Model and foster GM’s Core Values and Winning behaviors while ensuring that safety, integrity, quality, and customer impact remain central to engineering decisions.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering
• Minimum 7+ years of engineering experience related to system design, calibration, embedded controls, data analytics, warranty analysis, and/or complex automotive system development.
• Broad, working knowledge of automotive system design and best practices.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity while making sound, timely decisions and driving meaningful action.
• Proven experience creating and executing plans that align with long-term business strategy, product needs, and enterprise-wide goals.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver results across multiple simultaneous projects in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• Working knowledge of functional safety, product safety, hazard analysis, safety requirements, DFMEA, fault-tree analysis, safety cases, and diagnostic or fail-operational strategies.
• Experience translating vehicle regulations, standards, or certification obligations into engineering requirements and objective compliance evidence.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical decisions and resolve complex cross-functional issues involving hardware, software, controls, systems, suppliers, and program stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to establish technical governance, review work products, manage risk, and communicate readiness and escalation decisions to senior leadership.
• Demonstrated experience leading systems engineering activities across requirements, system architecture, interfaces, integration, verification, validation, and launch readiness.

What Will Give You A Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

• Master's degree in Engineering with a focus on Controls, Electrical, Mechanical, and/or Systems Engineering and/or a Master’s degree in Business Administration
• 5+ years of direct or indirect leadership of technical teams;
• Experience leading Body Electronics, mechatronics, embedded controls, vehicle access, lighting, closures, or other safety and regulation relevant automotive systems and applying modeling to engineering problems.
• Experience with Model-Based Systems Engineering, ISO26262 or comparable functional-safety processes as well as Product Safety and system safety processes.
• Experience managing technical teams across multiple vehicle programs, global workshare locations, and simultaneous development milestones.

This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week {or other frequency dictated by their manager}. This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.

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.

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