Principal Lidar Systems Engineer, Autonomous Driving

General Motors; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 239,000 - 366,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

GM vehicle discounts

Health and wellbeing benefits

Job summary

General Motors is advancing hands-off autonomous driving by investing in lidar technology, sensors, and scalable architectures for broad deployment. The principal systems engineer will lead the lidar design and integration within multi-modality sensing, collaborating with perception, localization, and vehicle teams to deliver robust autonomy across diverse operating conditions.

The role focuses on system-level decisions, optical path design, calibration, data processing, and productionization of

Qualifications

• Master's degree or higher in Electrical/Optical Engineering or related field.
• 13+ years in remote sensing, lidar development, or photonic systems with lidar concentration.
• Proven authority in lidar technology and decision-making on technical direction.

Responsibilities

• Define lidar technical strategy within multi-modality sensing suites.
• Lead trade studies on performance, cost, and integration for lidar products.
• Coordinate with perception, localization, and simulation teams to drive production-ready designs.
• Evaluate prototype and production data to identify improvements.
• Work with production teams and vendors to transition tech into production.
• Define performance requirements for robust autonomy across broad operating design domains.

Skills

Lidar development

Signal processing

Calibration methods

SPAD lidars

Data analysis

Communication skills

Weather/environmental robustness

Autonomy product knowledge

Root cause analysis

Education

Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering or Optical Engineering

PhD in related field (preferred)

Job description

General Motors is advancing hands-off autonomous driving by investing in lidar technology, sensors, and scalable architectures for broad deployment. The principal systems engineer will lead the lidar design and integration within multi-modality sensing, collaborating with perception, localization, and vehicle teams to deliver robust autonomy across diverse operating conditions.

The role focuses on system-level decisions, optical path design, calibration, data processing, and productionization of