Principal Software Engineer - Developer Experience

General Motors; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 190,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors seeks a Principal Software Engineer for Developer Experience to lead AI-enhanced engineering workflows. You will shape metrics, advocate for golden paths, and mentor engineers while driving platform improvements across GM’s DevEx ecosystem.

You’ll partner with security, infra, and product teams to remove friction, implement self-service tooling, and embed AI into developer workflows, ensuring scalable, reliable software delivery.

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).

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 (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.

Skills

Java

Go

C#

Python

TypeScript

Tools

GitHub

GitLab

Jira/ADO

CI/CD pipelines

artifact repositories

secrets management

feature flags

Job description

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).

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. #LI-CK1

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

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We are leading the change to make our world better, safer and more equitable for all through our actions and how we behave. Learn more about: Our Company Our Culture How we hire Our diverse team of employees bring their collective passion for engineering, technology and design to deliver on our vision of a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion. We are looking for adventure‑seekers and imaginative thought leaders to help us transform mobility. Explore our global locations We are determined to lead change for the world through technology, ingenuity and harnessing the creativity of our diverse team. Join us to help lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all by becoming a member of GM’s Talent Community (beamery.com).

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