Hardware Engineer - ECU Requirements & Specifications

generalmotors; Warren (MI); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors is seeking an ECU Hardware Requirements & Specifications Engineer to lead development and management of CTRS requirements for ECU hardware across GM architectures. You will collaborate with hardware, software, and electrical teams to define low-level specifications and ensure safe, scalable implementations.

The role emphasizes leadership, cross-functional communication, and the ability to drive standardization while navigating complex automotive systems.

Qualifications

• 2+ years engineering experience in product development, specifications or related activity.
• BS in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, Physics, CS or related engineering field; strong ECU requirements writing.
• Knowledge of MCUs, memory tech, vehicle data communications (Ethernet, CAN, LIN, SERDES).
• Solid understanding of hardware and low-level software interface design and failure modes.
• Familiarity with GM product development cycles and automotive release processes.
• Experience with requirement capture and management tools (e.g., DOORS).
• DFSS Green Belt certification desired.

Responsibilities

• Update existing ECU hardware requirements and define new CTRS interfaces.
• Support safety activities and ensure functional safety alignment for hardware specs.
• Standardize I/O interfaces and drive component commonality across ECUs.
• Gather requirements from GM stakeholders across vehicle architecture and software teams.
• Lead weekly requirement review and change control meetings.
• Support CTRS compilation and build activities for SOW and post-sourcing changes.
• Ensure traceability between CTRS requirements and verification activities.
• Align ECU hardware specs with build-to-print activities and design change control.
• Assist manufacturing remanufacturing and service programming requirement updates.
• Stay current with new tech and improve GM requirement docs and processes.
• Travel as needed, up to 10%.

Skills

Engineering experience

B.S. in Engineering

ECU hardware requirements

MCU and memory knowledge

Vehicle serial data (Ethernet CAN LIN)

Semiconductor physics

HW/SW interface design

GM product development cycles

Leadership & project management

Requirements tools (DOORS)

DFSS Green Belt

Education

Bachelor of Science in Engineering

MS in Engineering

Tools

DOORS

Job description

Job Description

Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are central to a wide range of control functions and are undergoing significant technological advancements in the global automotive market. Our team is looking for a creative and highly energetic ECU Hardware Requirements & Specifications Engineer who can lead the development and management of hardware requirements, low-level software definition and specification for ECU Hardware Component Technical Requirements Specifications (CTRS).

The ideal candidate will have experience with Automotive Embedded Control Systems including ECU circuit-level design, semiconductor and microprocessor application, low-level software design and diagnostics. Additional experience with implementing high Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) designs and applications is desirable.

The candidate will drive innovation, facilitate effective communication, and inspire enthusiasm within the team. We expect you to demonstrate leadership qualities, actively champion change, possess keen business intuition, and strategically address systemic challenges. You should also exhibit high learning agility, the ability to navigate ambiguity and complexity, and a commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation while challenging the status quo. You will also interact with and mediate between diverse control system, software and hardware design teams to achieve acceptable ECU requirements to all consumers of them.

The Role:

In this role you are expected to have a high level of technical proficiency in developing and managing requirements and providing technical leadership to perform ongoing development, maintenance, and configuration management of CTRS requirements that support various build-to-spec and build-to-print ECU designs across GM’s diverse portfolio of vehicles and electrical architectures (including electrification / Electric Vehicle ECU designs). Your contributions will play a key role in enabling standardized hardware designs with a focus on providing common solutions and seamless software implementations across multiple vehicle platforms. Your role will interface across various GM engineering disciplines as well as external engineering entities to obtain needed information for the requirements development work.

What You'll Do:

• Perform technical requirements update of existing and develop new ECU hardware electrical and functional interface definitions – including interactions with interfacing vehicle electronic devices and low-level software.
• Support semiconductor & microprocessor functional safety activities in developing requirements to meet safety manual use-case implementations.
• Standardize I/O interfaces in hardware requirements and drive commonization of components into ECU hardware designs.
• Solicit/identify/create new embedded controller requirement definitions from various GM stakeholders - such as vehicle, electrical/controller architecture, infra-structure software, low-level software, diagnostic and hardware design responsible teams.
• Support weekly requirement review and change control meetings that review/approve technical work performed in the update of existing and development of new requirements.
• Perform CTRS compilation and build activities from common and controller specific requirements in support of product team sourcing activities and post-sourcing design change documentation.
• Identify and implement mechanisms for traceability between internal/external CTRS requirements and their verification activities.
• Align requirements implementation with GM outsourced and build-to-print design activities - drive ECU, sub-component and/or circuit level design modifications where implementations fail to adhere to common requirements definition.
• Support requirement and specification definition and updates for ECU manufacturing, remanufacturing and plant/service programming implementations.
• Stay abreast of new technologies and competitor requirement documentation methods to drive refinement into GM’s requirement documentation and process.
• Domestic and/or international travel as required (minimal, 10% max).

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications):

• 2+ years engineering experience in product development, specifications or related activity.
• Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, or another related Engineering degree.
• Good level of competency in writing and comprehending ECU hardware technical requirements with very good oral and written communication skills.
• Knowledge of microcontrollers, memory technologies, vehicle serial data communications (Ethernet, CAN, LIN, SENT, SERDES), mechatronics and electrical architectures.
• Knowledge of Semiconductor physics, structures, fundamentals, models and failure mechanisms.
• Good level of understanding of hardware and low-level software interface designs and failure modes in electronic control units.
• Knowledge of GM product design and development cycles with previous experience in automotive product release and specification processes.
• Demonstrated leadership and project management of complex technical projects.
• Results-driven, proactive individual who takes initiative to solve problems involving complex system interactions.
• Superior interpersonal skills with ability to collaborate effectively while providing technical leadership and mentorship across diverse teams.
• Experience with technical requirement capture and management tool(s).
• DFSS Green Belt Certification

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

• 5+ years engineering experience in product development, specifications or related activity.
• Master of Science in Engineering or related field
• Electronic Circuit and/or Software design, analysis, development, validation experience.
• Familiarity/experience of safety critical embedded controls with at least one automotive subsystem or experience with a complex safety system in other industries.
• Experience with developing and/or specifying technical requirements for ECU circuit level designs and product development/analysis/validation with safety critical systems or ECUs.
• Experience with functional safety standards (ISO 26262, IEC 61508, IEC 62304, DO-178C) to develop and specify hardware and low-level software safety requirements for automotive ECUs and embedded control systems.
• Experience with Electric Vehicle (EV) electrical/electronic architectures and defining ECU hardware and low-level software requirements for high-voltage propulsion, battery management, and charging/control systems.
• Familiarity/experience with DOORS and/or DOORS next-gen requirement capture and management tool(s).
• Familiarity to develop ECU hardware interface specifications into robust and maintainable C-language prototypes for HWIO and low-level software implementations.
• DFSS Black Belt Certification

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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}.

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