Principal Software Engineer - Developer Experience

General Motors; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors seeks a Principal Software Engineer for Developer Experience to boost engineering productivity across GM’s SDLC. You will shape metrics, golden paths, and AI-driven tooling, partnering with platform teams to translate data into actionable improvements for engineers at GM.

You will mentor engineers, drive platform adoption, and lead strategy for measurement and governance of developer experiences with impact across IT and product lines.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software development and senior/principal roles.
• Proficiency in at least one modern language and distributed systems in production.
• Deep experience designing modern CI/CD pipelines and release processes.
• Hands-on experience with developer platforms and SDLC tooling.

Responsibilities

• Set and lead technical strategy and delivery for platforms, tools, and workflows that improve developer productivity, quality, and satisfaction across GM.
• Define and drive adoption of golden paths for shipping software—covering repo structure, CI/CD, testing, security, observability, and deployment.
• Build automation and self-service capabilities that reduce manual toil.
• Lead the strategy for embedding AI into engineering workflows, including agents and copilots.
• Partner with product, security, infra, and application leaders to translate pain points into improvements.
• Act as an org-wide multiplier and mentor, coaching engineers on software practices and AI-assisted development.
• Define and own the strategy for outcome-focused metrics and use data to guide investments.
• Shape and govern engineering standards, patterns, and reference architectures.

Skills

Software development

Distributed systems

CI/CD

GitHub/GitLab

Communication skills

Tools

GitHub

GitLab

Jira

Artifact repositories

Secrets management

Feature flags

CI/CD systems

Job description

The Role:

This

Job Description

The Role:

This Principal Software Engineer – Developer Experience role sits within the Developer Experience (DevEx) team at the intersection of DevEx, data, and business strategy. The team provides tools, platforms, metrics, and enablement programs that reduce friction for engineers, streamline software delivery workflows, and improve developer satisfaction and productivity across General Motors.

In this role, you will focus on Developer Productivity & Insights—defining how we measure and understand engineering effectiveness, partnering with platform and product teams to synthesize signals across SDLC systems, and translating those insights into clear narratives and recommendations for senior engineering leadership up to the CISO office. Rather than owning a single platform, you will drive change through influence and strategy: shaping our metrics strategy, defining and evolving golden paths, evaluating how AI is transforming developer workflows, and turning data into better tools, workflows, and outcomes for engineers.

The DevEx team exists to make life dramatically better for software engineers at GM. As a Principal Software Engineer, you’ll help lead the shift from a traditional IT model to an AI-native engineering organization—setting direction and designing and building automation, golden paths, and AI-driven solutions that remove friction from developer workflows while mentoring and upskilling engineers across IT.

What you’ll do:

• Set and lead technical strategy and delivery for platforms, tools, and workflows that improve developer productivity, quality, and satisfaction across GM.


• Define and drive adoption of golden paths (opinionated, paved-road workflows) for shipping software—covering repo structure, CI/CD, testing, security, observability, and deployment.


• Build automation and self-service capabilities that reduce manual toil (e.g., environment provisioning, pipeline setup, guardrail enforcement, standards checks).


• Lead the strategy for embedding AI into engineering workflows, including agents and copilots that assist with planning, coding, testing, documentation, and operations.


• Partner with and influence product, security, infra, and application leaders to understand pain points and translate them into concrete platform and tooling improvements.


• Act as an org-wide multiplier and mentor, coaching engineers and providing guidance on software engineering, AI-assisted development, and recommended practices.


• Define, socialize, and own the strategy for outcome-focused metrics (e.g., lead time for changes, PR cycle time, change failure rate, developer satisfaction) and use data to guide investments.


• Shape and govern engineering standards, patterns, and reference architectures used across Core IT and beyond.

What you bring:

• Proven experience as a Principal Engineer or senior technical leader driving technical strategy and execution across multiple teams or organizations.


• Strong systems thinking and product mindset—you treat developers as customers and design solutions that are intuitive, resilient, and maintainable.


• AI-native mindset: experience using and integrating AI/ML into engineering workflows (e.g., AI coding assistants, agentic workflows, intelligent automation), or strong evidence you can ramp quickly.


• Track record of technical leadership without formal authority: mentoring others, leading design reviews, influencing roadmaps, and driving cross-team alignment.


• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical tradeoffs and build trust with engineers, managers, and partners.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software development, including significant time in senior/staff/principal-level roles.


• Strong proficiency in at least one modern language (e.g., Java, Go, C#, Python, TypeScript) and in designing, building, and operating distributed systems in production.


• Deep experience designing and operating modern CI/CD pipelines and release processes, including build, test, deploy, release strategies, rollback, and environment promotion.


• Hands‑on experience with developer platforms and SDLC tooling (e.g., GitHub/GitLab, CI/CD systems, Jira/ADO, artifact repositories, secrets management, feature flags).

What Will Give You A Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications):

• Experience in platform engineering, SRE, or internal developer platforms.


• Background in large, regulated, or safety‑critical environments where security, compliance, and reliability are first‑class concerns.


• Prior work in Developer Experience / Developer Productivity / DevTools organizations.

Gm does not provide immigration‑related sponsorship for this role. Do not apply for this role if you will need gm immigration sponsorship (e.g., h-1b, tn, stem opt, etc.) Now or in the future.

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.)

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.

All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.

We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre‑employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire.

Accommodations

General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1-800-865-7580. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.