Lead Systems Engineer - GM Defense

GM Defense; Milford Charter Township (MI); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company vehicle program

Job summary

GM Defense in Michigan is seeking a Lead System Engineer to guide a team in defining and rolling down system requirements for complex defense vehicles and subsystems. You will integrate inputs across mechanical, electrical, and controls domains to meet safety, performance, cost, timing, and manufacturability goals.

The role emphasizes DFMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, V&V planning, and cross-functional collaboration, with AI-enabled tools to improve requirements quality and traceability.

Qualifications

• BSE/BS in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years in systems engineering, requirements development, product integration, or similar roles.
• 5+ years in defense industry systems engineering, with complex defense systems.
• Strong collaboration and cross-functional communication skills.
• Understanding of mechanical, electrical, controls, and integrated vehicle systems.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams in requirements development and verification planning.
• Experience with DFMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, verification & validation planning.
• Ability to translate objectives into executable system requirements and availability targets.
• Proficiency in applying AI tools to improve requirements quality and traceability.
• U.S. Person status (citizenship or eligible for compliance).

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of Systems Engineers in development, decomposition, and roll-down of system requirements across the product.
• Ensure subsystem requirements, interfaces, and verification plans align to mission and program objectives.
• Drive system-level integration across disciplines to deliver a cohesive product definition.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration to meet safety, performance, cost, timing, manufacturability, and validation goals.
• Oversee interface definition, requirements traceability, and verification planning across systems.
• Create System DFMEA and ensure failure modes are addressed in design.
• Participate in Fault Tree Analysis and mitigation for risk drivers.
• Collaborate on V&V plans across mechanical, electrical, and controls domains.
• Lead integration and issue resolution through the full development cycle.
• Work with subsystem teams to optimize design and total system performance.
• Set availability targets, allocate to subsystems, and define mitigation plans.

Skills

System requirements development

Requirements management

DFMEA

Fault Tree Analysis

V&V planning

Cross-functional leadership

AI-enabled requirements

System integration

Risk identification

Availability planning

Education

BSE/BS in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering or equivalent

Job description

The Role

GM Defense delivers integrated vehicles, power and propulsion, and autonomy and connectivity solutions for global defense, security, and government customers. By leveraging GM’s advanced commercial vehicle platforms, engineering expertise, and large-scale manufacturing, GM Defense rapidly adapts proven technologies into military-grade, mission-ready solutions that help customers improve mobility, readiness, and sustainment while managing cost and complexity.

Job Description

GM Defense delivers integrated vehicles, power and propulsion, and autonomy and connectivity solutions for global defense, security, and government customers. By leveraging GM’s advanced commercial vehicle platforms, engineering expertise, and large-scale manufacturing, GM Defense rapidly adapts proven technologies into military-grade, mission-ready solutions that help customers improve mobility, readiness, and sustainment while managing cost and complexity.

System engineering is a multidisciplinary organization chartered with pulling together the highly complex and interconnected system that is the modern-day vehicle and related products. It transcends the physical nature of any specific design, cutting across traditional engineering disciplines to enable customer-focused execution of vehicle-level features.

The Lead System Engineer is a people leader and technical expert role responsible for leading Systems Engineers in the definition and roll-down of system requirements, alignment of subsystem interfaces, and execution of verification planning to ensure the total product meets mission and program objectives. In this role, the Lead System Engineer provides system-level technical leadership across the product, integrating engineering inputs into a cohesive requirements-driven solution while ensuring safety, performance, timing, cost, and manufacturability targets are supported. Requirements and engineering inputs for this role may come directly from the customer as well as indirectly through the GMD business development team. AI-enabled tools are expected to be used in the development, refinement, and management of requirements, and the role is responsible for building team capability through required AI training and adoption of effective engineering practices.

What You’ll Do

• Lead a team of Systems Engineers in development, decomposition, and roll-down of system requirements across the product
• Ensure subsystem requirements, interfaces, and verification plans are aligned to overall mission and program objectives
• Drive system-level integration across engineering disciplines to deliver a cohesive and executable product definition
• Lead cross-functional collaboration to ensure requirements support safety, performance, cost, timing, manufacturability, and validation objectives
• Oversee interface definition, requirements traceability, and verification planning across systems and subsystems
• Create System DFMEA and ensure system failure modes are understood, documented, and addressed through the design process
• Participate in Fault Tree Analysis and support development of the technical understanding needed to identify risk drivers and mitigation paths
• Collaborate on the V&V plan across mechanical, electrical, and controls domains to ensure the system is validated against requirements and intended performance
• Lead the integration and issue resolution of the system through the full development cycle
• Work with subsystem and component teams to optimize system design and improve total system performance
• Set availability targets, allocate them to subsystems and components, determine feature sensitivity to variation and failure modes, and define mitigation plans to improve performance to target
• Stay abreast of new technology, new processes, and new methods used to predict and improve availability
• Apply AI-enabled tools to improve the quality, speed, consistency, and traceability of requirements development
• Ensure the team receives required AI training and adopts AI tools and methods effectively within the systems engineering process
• Identify technical and integration risks early and lead resolution of cross-system issues that could impact program execution
• Support development of a scalable system architecture and requirements framework that can be successfully executed through development and launch

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• BSE, BS in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or equivalent experience
• 10+ years professional experience in systems engineering, requirements development, product integration, or equivalent technical roles
• 5+ years of systems engineering experience within the defense industry, supporting the development, integration, and verification of complex defense systems
• Demonstrates effective interpersonal and communication skills to collaborate successfully with cross-functional teams, customers, and business development partners
• Strong understanding of engineering theory and principles of operation of mechanical, electrical, controls, and integrated vehicle systems
• Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams in requirements development, interface alignment, integration, and technical issue resolution
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute System DFMEA, participate in Fault Tree Analysis, and collaborate on verification and validation planning
• Strong analytical ability to translate customer and product objectives into executable system requirements, availability targets, and mitigation plans
• Demonstrated technical and professional skills in systems engineering, including requirements management, traceability, risk identification, and cross-functional decision-making
• Ability to apply AI-enabled tools and methods to improve requirements quality, speed, consistency, and traceability while building team capability through effective adoption practices
• Candidate must be a U.S. Person (U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, asylee or refugee).

Company Vehicle

Upon successful completion of a motor vehicle report review, you will be eligible to participate in a company vehicle evaluation program, through 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.

#GMD

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). 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}. The selected candidate will be required to travel <25% for this role. This job is not eligible for relocation benefits. Any relocation costs would be the responsibility of the selected candidate. The position is subject to export control restrictions and requires the successful candidate to be a U.S. Person (U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, asylee or refugee).

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