Senior Backend Software Engineer - GM Energy

General Motors; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 198,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

GM employee discounts

Relocation benefits

Job summary

General Motors in Sunnyvale, CA is seeking a Senior Software Engineer focused on backend platform and API ownership to design, build, and operate scalable backend services powering core product capabilities.

The role requires leadership in architecture, API design, security, and observability while collaborating with product, frontend, QA, and DevOps teams to deliver production-ready systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong hands-on experience building backend applications and production APIs
• Proficiency in one or more backend programming languages such as Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, or similar
• Experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs and service-to-service integrations
• Experience working with cloud platforms and distributed systems
• Strong understanding of software engineering fundamentals including testing, debugging, version control, and code review
• Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases, data modeling, and performance tuning
• Demonstrated ability to independently solve moderately complex engineering problems and deliver production-quality software
• Strong collaboration and communication skills

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support backend services and APIs for internal and customer-facing applications
• Own service architecture and technical design decisions for backend platform capabilities
• Build secure and reusable APIs, service integrations, and shared backend components
• Improve system scalability, performance, resilience, and operational excellence across services
• Lead implementation of logging, monitoring, alerting, and observability best practices
• Partner with product and engineering stakeholders to translate requirements into robust technical solutions
• Drive code quality through code reviews, testing strategy, documentation, and engineering standards
• Troubleshoot production issues, perform root cause analysis, and implement preventive fixes
• Mentor other engineers and contribute to stronger backend development practices across the team
• Support CI/CD, release readiness, and automation efforts that improve delivery speed and reliability
• Own backend service development across the software development lifecycle
• Define and enforce API design standards, versioning practices, and service reliability expectations
• Build integrations with internal and external systems using modern service-based patterns
• Write efficient, maintainable, and well-tested code with a strong focus on security and scalability
• Collaborate across teams to reduce technical debt and improve platform consistency
• Contribute to architectural reviews and influence backend technical direction
• Help establish measurable service health indicators and operational guardrails

Skills

Backend development

API design

Backend languages

RESTful APIs

Cloud platforms

Database design

Testing & debugging

Code reviews

Team collaboration

Security & scalability

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering or equivalent

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Azure

Job description

Job Description

The Role:

As a Senior Software Engineer focused on backend platform and API ownership, you will design, build, and operate scalable backend services that power critical product and business capabilities. You will be responsible for developing secure, reliable, and maintainable APIs and platform services, improving system performance and observability, and helping raise the engineering bar across the team.

What You’ll Do:

This position sits within the Energy Solutions organization and is aligned to a senior individual contributor software engineering scope. The role is expected to partner closely with product, frontend, platform, QA, DevOps, and adjacent engineering teams to deliver backend systems that are scalable, reliable, and production-ready.

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support backend services and APIs for internal and customer-facing applications




• Own service architecture and technical design decisions for backend platform capabilities




• Build secure and reusable APIs, service integrations, and shared backend components




• Improve system scalability, performance, resilience, and operational excellence across services




• Lead implementation of logging, monitoring, alerting, and observability best practices




• Partner with product and engineering stakeholders to translate requirements into robust technical solutions




• Drive code quality through code reviews, testing strategy, documentation, and engineering standards




• Troubleshoot production issues, perform root cause analysis, and implement preventive fixes




• Mentor other engineers and contribute to stronger backend development practices across the team




• Support CI/CD, release readiness, and automation efforts that improve delivery speed and reliability




• Own backend service development across the software development lifecycle




• Define and enforce API design standards, versioning practices, and service reliability expectations




• Build integrations with internal and external systems using modern service-based patterns




• Write efficient, maintainable, and well-tested code with a strong focus on security and scalability




• Collaborate across teams to reduce technical debt and improve platform consistency




• Contribute to architectural reviews and influence backend technical direction




• Help establish measurable service health indicators and operational guardrails

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications):

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience




• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience




• Strong hands-on experience building backend applications and production APIs




• Proficiency in one or more backend programming languages such as Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, or similar




• Experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs and service-to-service integrations




• Experience working with cloud platforms and distributed systems




• Strong understanding of software engineering fundamentals including testing, debugging, version control, and code review




• Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases, data modeling, and performance tuning




• Demonstrated ability to independently solve moderately complex engineering problems and deliver production-quality software




• Strong collaboration and communication skills

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

• Experience building platform services or shared backend capabilities used by multiple teams




• Experience with Azure and cloud-native architecture patterns




• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes




• Experience with event-driven systems, messaging, or asynchronous processing




• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and DevOps practices




• Experience with observability tooling, service monitoring, and operational support




• Experience improving nonfunctional requirements such as security, scalability, reliability, and maintainability




• Familiarity with regulated, enterprise, or large-scale product environments

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 actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position, as well as geography of the selected candidate.

• The salary range for this role is $129,400 - $198,400. 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:

• 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.

GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. Do not apply for this role if you will need GM immigration sponsorship now or in the future. This includes direct company sponsorship, entry of GM as the immigration employer of record on a government form, and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (e.g., H1-B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc).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.)

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.