Principal Software Engineer – Core OS, Vehicle Compute

General Motors; United States; 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 for vehicle software platforms, including hypervisors, virtualization, and security. You will drive architecture decisions, collaborate with silicon partners, and guide multiple teams to deliver reliable, safe, and high-performance system software for millions of vehicles.

The role requires deep OS/virtualization expertise, leadership across cross-functional groups, and a focus on production-grade delivery within a

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in a related field.
• 15+ years of embedded, kernel-level, or systems software development.
• Experience architecting OS or virtualization platforms for high-performance or safety-critical systems.
• Expertise in two or more areas: hypervisors, RTOS, embedded Linux, secure boot, or Arm SoC architecture.
• Proven ability to lead multi-team technical programs from concept to production.
• Proficiency with modern dev tools: Git, GitHub, CI/CD, automated testing, and profiling.

Responsibilities

• Define architecture and long-term roadmap for GM Core OS layer including hypervisors and virtualization.
• Architect multi-OS foundation enabling embedded Linux, Yocto, Android, and QNX on shared compute.
• Establish platform safety architecture with partitions, health monitoring, and fault recovery.
• Define container/workload-management architecture for on-vehicle execution.
• Own system-level performance strategy across compute efficiency, latency, and boot time.
• Drive build-versus-buy decisions and manage supplier relationships.
• Provide mentorship to staff/senior engineers and drive engineering standards.
• Lead investigations across virtualization, OS, and silicon boundaries.

Skills

Type 1 hypervisors & virtualization

Real-time OS experience

Embedded Linux internals

Secure boot & platform integrity

Arm SoC architecture

Cross-functional leadership

CI/CD & performance profiling

Inter-VM communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/EE or related field

15+ years embedded/systems software

Tools

Git

GitHub

CI/CD

Automated testing

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.

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

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 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

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Benefits Overview

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