Principal Software Engineer - Autonomy Behavior Validation

generalmotors; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 239,000 - 366,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and wellbeing programs

GM vehicle discounts

Job summary

General Motors seeks a Principal Software Engineer in Autonomy Behavior Validation to define technical direction for counterfactual simulation and trustworthy engineering evidence. You will lead predicate-driven scene reconstruction, human and road-user models, and scalable validation workflows to support safety decisions and product launches.

The role emphasizes Python-driven analysis, production-quality software, and collaboration across Safety, Legal, and Product teams.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, robotics, human factors, or related field.
• 10+ years of professional experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, vehicle development, simulation, systems engineering, human factors, or safety-critical validation.
• Proven record evaluating autonomous vehicles for commercial fleet launches or high-consequence products.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical strategy and architecture for counterfactual behavior evaluation and scalable scene perturbations.
• Lead conversion of real incidents and simulation events into executable, provenance-preserving scenarios.
• Implement and validate human and road-user response models against benchmarks and requirements.
• Define scalable pipelines for parameter extraction, scene reconstruction, counterfactual swaps, fuzzing, and analysis of large scenario sets.
• Establish validation methods for the counterfactual product, including baseline comparisons and traceability to requirements.
• Lead cross-functional work across Behavior, Simulation, Safety, Human Factors, Legal, Product, and Operations.

Skills

Python

Counterfactual Simulation

Agentic Workflows

Technical Leadership

Education

Master’s degree in relevant engineering/science field

10+ years in autonomous vehicles/simulation

Tools

Simulation pipelines

Job description

Job Description

Principal Software Engineer - Autonomy Behavior Validation

The Role

As a Principal Software Engineer in the Autonomy Behavior Validation team, you will set the technical direction for turning safety and behavior requirements into a production-grade counterfactual simulation product.

You will build a capability that turns real incidents and simulation scenarios into trustworthy engineering evidence for developers, release decisions, and launch decisions. This includes scene reconstruction, implementation of safety-defined attentive-human benchmarks, human and other road-user response models, counterfactual simulation following intervention, controlled scene variation, outcome and severity estimation, and the validation needed to understand when a result is credible enough to support a decision. You will partner with Safety and other stakeholders to define and refine requirements and benchmark definitions, then turn them into scalable, auditable, and repeatable simulation workflows.

What You’ll Do

• Set the technical strategy and architecture for counterfactual behavior evaluation, including operationalizing safety-defined attentive-human benchmarks, counterfactual simulation following human intervention, alternate-policy comparisons, and controlled scene perturbations.

• Lead the conversion of real incidents and simulation events into executable, provenance-preserving scenarios with enough fidelity, repeatability, and uncertainty characterization to support engineering and safety decisions.

• Implement and validate human and other road-user response models against agreed benchmarks and requirements, including perception and reaction timing, maneuver selection, vehicle dynamics, and the range of plausible outcomes.

• Define and deploy scalable pipelines for parameter extraction, scene reconstruction, counterfactual swaps, fuzzing, simulation execution, outcome estimation, and analysis of large scenario sets.

• Establish how the counterfactual product and its outputs are validated, including comparison to baseline runs, replay and closed-course evidence, model limitations, confidence, traceability to requirements, and appropriate use of results.

• Lead work across Behavior, Simulation, Safety, Human Factors, Legal, Product, and Operations, turning complex results into clear engineering actions, safety-case evidence, and release recommendations.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, robotics, human factors, or a related field.

• 10 or more years of professional experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, vehicle development, simulation, systems engineering, human factors, or safety-critical validation.

• A proven record of evaluating autonomous vehicles for a commercial fleet, launch, supervised release, or other high-consequence product decision.

• Strong understanding of human behavior modeling, driver response, perception and reaction time, vehicle dynamics, uncertainty, and the limits of model-based conclusions.

• Deep experience building or leading counterfactual, replay, crash reconstruction, incident analysis, or comparable simulation-based evaluation capabilities.

• Professional experience with simulation evaluation at scale, including scenario generation, parameter sweeps, distributed execution, reproducibility, data quality, and the trade-offs between fidelity, confidence, runtime, and cost.

• Strong Python and agentic workflow experience. You should be comfortable designing and reviewing production-quality analysis, simulation, and validation software and using code to investigate an engineering question quickly.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical results, assumptions, and limitations to both engineering and non-engineering stakeholders.

• Demonstrated technical leadership across organizational boundaries and evidence of setting direction beyond a single project through a methodology, platform, framework, or reusable validation capability adopted by other teams.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge

• Experience operationalizing attentive-human benchmarks from naturalistic driving data, human factors research, expert review, or experimentally grounded response-time and maneuver models.

• Experience with traffic collision reconstruction or incident reconstruction using vehicle logs, sensor data, maps, physical constraints, and other evidence sources.

• Experience modeling other road-user behavior and the interaction between ego behavior, participant response, and environmental conditions.

• Experience with collision severity, injury-risk, risk quantification, safety claims, safety cases, hazard analysis, or residual-risk decisions.

• Experience validating simulation fidelity and counterfactual predictions against real drives, non-intervened events, closed-course tests, or other independent evidence.

• Experience translating legal or regulatory expectations into defensible reconstruction methods, validation evidence, or documented claims.

• A track record of developing engineers, leading technical communities, and making a broader organization better at systems engineering, simulation, and validation.

Compensation: The compensation information is a good faith estimate only. It is based on what a successful applicant might be paid in accordance with applicable state laws. The compensation may not be representative for positions located outside of New York, Colorado, California, or Washington.

• The salary range for this role: is $238,700 to $365,700. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position.
• Bonus Potential: An incentive pay program offers payouts based on company performance, job level, and individual performance.
• Benefits: GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs. Benefit options include medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan, sickness and accident benefits, life insurance, paid vacation & holidays, tuition assistance programs, employee assistance program, GM vehicle discounts and more

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