Senior Exterior Lighting Design & Release Engineer

General Motors Company; United States; Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors Company seeks a Lighting Advanced Vehicle Development Design Release Engineer to define and advance exterior lighting content from early programs through production handoff. You will serve as the primary engineering interface among Studio, Design, vehicle programs, and suppliers, guiding decisions on design intent, cost, quality, and timing.

You will build cost and content models, lead design-to-cost discussions, review RFQs, and ensure alignment with program targets while

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, electrical, optical, automotive, or related engineering discipline.
• Typically seven or more years of progressively responsible experience in automotive exterior lighting, vehicle engineering, design release, advanced development, or a related field.
• Experience with exterior lighting concepts, content approval, RFQ activity, technical reviews, sourcing, or comparable vehicle development processes.
• Strong understanding of lighting technology, optical performance, electronics, power consumption, packaging, supplier capabilities, manufacturing, and applicable regulations.
• Experience developing cost and content proposals, design‑to‑cost alternatives, competitive benchmarks, or should‑cost estimates.
• Ability to balance Studio intent, program targets, technical requirements, supplier capability, regulatory requirements, cost, and timing.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, negotiation, and cross‑functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple programs, and make sound decisions with incomplete or changing information.

Responsibilities

• Define early lighting scope, trim content, carryover and new content, technology strategy, supplier options, competitiveness, and engineering criteria.
• Partner with Studio, Design, Brand Leads, and lighting designers throughout sketch, clay, theme, and surface development.
• Assess feasibility, appearance, optics, photometry, packaging, electronics, power, thermal performance, manufacturability, cost, and regulatory considerations.
• Develop engineering alternatives that preserve design intent while meeting program targets.
• Build ground‑up lighting cost and content models.
• Lead content walks, design‑to‑cost proposals, cost approval forums, and trade‑off discussions involving design, suppliers, investment, piece cost, performance, and timing.
• Support Statement of Requirements (SOR) development, requests for quotation (RFQs), supplier quote reviews, negotiations, sourcing decisions, and final quote comparisons.
• Evaluate supplier technology, capability, performance, tooling, cost, and timing; support post‑sourcing activities and handoff to production DREs.
• Serve as an early liaison to Technical Specialists and execution teams, considering lighting design, optics, electronics, power and EV‑range impacts, packaging, manufacturing, total enterprise cost, and global regulations.
• Improve lighting program execution through cost‑estimating tools, purchasing analytics, benchmarking, calculators, templates, databases, and lessons learned.
• Share knowledge across programs, regions, AVD, DRE, Finance, Purchasing, and engineering teams.

Skills

Bachelor’s degree

7+ years experience

Exterior lighting

Cost/content proposals

Design-to-cost

Cross-functional collaboration

Independent work

Studio/Design liaison

Education

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical/electrical/optical/automotive engineering

Tools

Cost modeling tools

Job description

General Motors Company seeks a Lighting Advanced Vehicle Development Design Release Engineer to define and advance exterior lighting content from early programs through production handoff. You will serve as the primary engineering interface among Studio, Design, vehicle programs, and suppliers, guiding decisions on design intent, cost, quality, and timing.

You will build cost and content models, lead design-to-cost discussions, review RFQs, and ensure alignment with program targets while