Principal Software Engineer – Core OS, Vehicle Compute

General Motors; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 216,000 - 450,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

Health Savings Account

Flexible Spending Accounts

Retirement savings plans

Paid vacation and holidays

Tuition assistance

Employee assistance programs

Life insurance

GM vehicle discounts

Job summary

General Motors is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the Core OS layer, defining architecture for hypervisors, virtualization, and container workloads across vehicle compute platforms.

You will drive platform safety, multi-OS integration (Linux, Yocto, Android, QNX), and performance optimization, mentoring engineers and aligning with safety and cybersecurity teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or higher in a related field or equivalent experience.
• Fifteen+ years in embedded, kernel-level, or systems software development.
• Proven experience architecting OS or virtualization platforms for high performance or safety-critical systems.
• Deep expertise in two or more areas from the list (hypervisors, RTOS, embedded Linux, secure boot).
• Strong knowledge of Arm SoC memory management, virtualization, and isolation.
• Experience leading multi-team technical programs from concept to production.
• Proficiency with Git, GitHub, CI/CD, automated testing, and performance profiling.
• Strong communication and influence across technical, cross-functional, and executive audiences.

Responsibilities

• Define architecture and long-term roadmap for GM Core OS layer including hypervisors and boot chain.
• Architect multi-OS foundation enabling embedded Linux, Yocto, Android, and QNX on shared vehicle compute.
• Establish platform safety architecture and health monitoring in partnership with safety/cybersecurity teams.
• Define container and workload-management architecture for in-vehicle execution.
• Own system-level performance strategy: compute efficiency, latency, boot time, memory footprint.
• Drive build-versus-buy decisions for hypervisor and RTOS components; manage supplier relationships.
• Provide mentorship to Staff/Senior engineers and set engineering standards.
• Lead investigations across virtualization, OS, and silicon boundaries; participate in architecture reviews.

Skills

Hypervisor expertise

RTOS

Embedded Linux

Secure boot

Arm SoC

Cross-functional leadership

CI/CD & automated testing

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/EE/CE

Master’s degree in related field

Tools

Yocto

AOSP

Android Automotive

QNX SDP

Gunyah

QNX Hypervisor

Xen

KVM/Arm

AUTOSAR/SOAFEE

Job description

Job Description

At General Motors, our product teams are redefining mobility. Through a human-centered design process, we create vehicles and experiences that are designed not just to be seen, but to be felt. We’re turning today’s impossible into tomorrow’s standard -from breakthrough hardware and battery systems to intuitive design, intelligent software, and next-generation safety and entertainment features.

Every day, our products move millions of people as we aim to make driving safer, smarter, and more connected, shaping the future of transportation on a global scale.

The Role

The Core OS group is a newly formed team building the operating-system foundation GM's next generation of vehicle software runs on: hypervisors and virtualization, safety partitioning and health management, container runtime and workload orchestration, and the boot and secure-boot chain that let Linux, Android, and QNX share a single high-compute platform safely and efficiently. As Principal Software Engineer, you are the senior technical authority and system architect for that layer — you'll determine which platform problems matter most, then define the architecture and drive the solutions that solve them, setting long-term direction for virtualization, partitioning, and platform services across GM's vehicle compute. Your influence extends well past your own code: establishing the technical interfaces to the silicon, guest OS, and functional-safety organizations, driving decisions with hypervisor and silicon partners, and guiding engineers across multiple teams toward a foundation that must hold up to production performance, reliability, and safety requirements in millions of vehicles.

What You’ll Do

• Define and drive the architecture and long-term roadmap for GM’s Core OS layer, including hypervisors, virtualization, virtual machine lifecycle, resource partitioning, inter-virtual-machine communication, and the boot and secure-boot chain.
• Architect the multi-operating-system foundation that enables embedded Linux, including Yocto-based distributions, Android, and QNX to run on shared vehicle compute with consistent platform services and interfaces.
• Establish the platform safety architecture, including freedom from interference between partitions, health monitoring, fault detection and recovery, in partnership with functional safety and cybersecurity organizations.
• Define the container and workload-management architecture for on-vehicle execution, including isolation, lifecycle management, resource governance, and updateability.
• Own the system-level performance strategy across compute efficiency, latency, boot time, memory footprint, and deterministic behavior, and lead optimization efforts across software and hardware boundaries.
• Drive build-versus-buy and technology-selection decisions for hypervisor, real-time operating system, and runtime components, and lead technical relationships with the corresponding suppliers.
• Provide technical mentorship and direction to Staff and Senior Software Engineers while establishing engineering standards and review practices for the new organization.
• Lead complex investigations and root-cause analyses across virtualization, operating-system, and silicon boundaries. Represent Core OS in technical councils, architecture reviews, and cross-functional design forums, and define ownership boundaries with adjacent platform teams.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field; or equivalent experience.
• Fifteen or more years of experience in embedded, kernel-level, or systems software development, including production-grade systems.
• Proven experience architecting operating-system or virtualization platforms for high-performance or safety-critical systems.
• Deep expertise in at least two of the following areas:
• Type 1 hypervisors and virtualization
• Real-time operating systems
• Embedded Linux internals
• Secure boot and platform integrity
• Strong knowledge of Arm system-on-chip (SoC) architecture, including memory management, interrupt and input/output virtualization, and hardware-enforced isolation mechanisms.
• Experience leading multi-team or cross-functional technical programs from concept through production.
• Proficiency with modern development tools and practices, including Git, GitHub, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), automated testing, and performance profiling.
• Strong communication and influence skills across technical, cross-functional, and executive audiences.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Hands-on architecture experience with hypervisor technologies such as Gunyah, QNX Hypervisor, Xen, or KVM/Arm, including virtio-based device virtualization.
• Expertise in automotive functional safety, including Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) decomposition, safety-island architecture, freedom-from-interference arguments, and safety-framework integration.
• Experience with container runtimes and workload orchestration in resource-constrained or embedded environments.
• Familiarity with Yocto-based Linux distributions, Android Open Source Project (AOSP) or Android Automotive, and QNX Software Development Platform (SDP) as guest or host environments.
• Familiarity with health monitoring, fail-operational and fail-safe mechanisms, and platform-resiliency design.
• Experience with Adaptive Automotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR), Software Defined Vehicle Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE), or comparable automotive platform standards.
• Experience with over-the-air (OTA) and continuous-update architectures.
• Contributions to open-source virtualization or operating-system projects.
• Proven ability to set technical vision, influence across organizations, and represent a company in cross-industry engagements.

Compensation:

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 salary range for this role is $216,400 -$450,400. The actual base salary offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position, as well as the selected candidate’s geography.

Benefits:

GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs.

• medical
• dental
• vision
• Health Savings Account
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• retirement savings plans
• paid vacation and holidays
• tuition assistance
• employee assistance programs
• life insurance
• GM vehicle discounts

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.

Benefits Overview

From day one, we're looking out for your well-being-at work and at home-so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.

Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)

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Accommodations

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