Senior Manager, Components Experience Strategy

General Motors; Warren, Northern (MI, KY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors seeks a Senior Manager of Components Experience Strategy to define how interior vehicle components contribute to a cohesive, intuitive customer experience. You will translate GM Design strategy into clear direction for cockpit touchpoints and portfolios across programs, brands, and regions.

You’ll lead cross-functional challenges, balance design with ergonomics and feasibility, and shape future directions of physical and digital interior interactions.

Qualifications

• Experience leading interior components design across complex programs.
• Ability to translate customer, brand, and business needs into design direction.
• Strong communication with senior leaders in high-visibility settings.

Responsibilities

• Define long-term strategy for interior component experiences across programs.
• Set design direction for instrument panels, center stacks, door controls, and displays.
• Translate strategy into actionable priorities, criteria, and KPIs.
• Lead cross-functional teams balancing design, ergonomics, cost and timing.

Skills

Interior components

Industrial design

Human Interface Design

Portfolio thinking

Cross-functional leadership

Stakeholder management

Executive influence

Education

Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design

Job description

Job Description The Role

The Senior Manager, Components Experience Strategy is a design leader within Human Interface Design responsible for defining how interior vehicle components contribute to a cohesive, intuitive, and distinctive customer experience. This role translates GM and Design strategy into clear direction for cockpit and cabin touchpoints, portfolio priorities, design criteria, and operating plans across programs, brands, and regions. Operating with broad latitude in a complex environment, this leader shapes enterprise initiatives, influences senior decisions, and connects component choices to customer experience, brand equity, usability, feasibility, and business outcomes. The role will help establish the future direction of physical and digital interaction across the vehicle interior while strengthening the organization’s design capability and leadership pipeline.

What You’ll Do

Define and lead long-term strategy for interior vehicle component experiences across major programs, portfolios, and studios, ensuring alignment with GM business strategy, customer needs, and brand direction.

Establish vision and design direction for customer-facing interior touchpoints, including instrument panel elements, center stack and console components, door-mounted controls, steering wheel touchpoints, display surrounds, storage interfaces, and trim-integrated interaction points.

Translate strategy into actionable component priorities, design criteria, operating plans, resource choices, and measurable objectives for teams and leaders across the organization.

Lead complex, ambiguous, cross-functional challenges involving interior component integration while balancing design intent with ergonomics, human factors, packaging, engineering, manufacturing, timing, cost, and quality requirements.

Define how physical component experiences work with digital and visual interaction layers to deliver a cohesive Human Interface Design strategy across hardware and software touchpoints.

Use design judgment, customer understanding, data, competitive insight, and trend awareness to anticipate future-state interior component experience direction before it reaches the market.

Align senior stakeholders, elevate organizational standards, develop future component design leaders, and own strategic initiatives and KPIs that improve customer experience and functional results.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Extensive experience leading interior components, industrial, creative, Human Interface Design, or automotive design strategy across complex programs, portfolios, or studios.
• Deep expertise in interior component design visioning, portfolio thinking, and translating customer, brand, and business needs into actionable design direction.
• Strong understanding of how physical interior components contribute to the broader human interface, including usability, ergonomics, controls, touchpoints, and integration with digital experiences.
• Proven success influencing senior leaders and aligning cross‑functional stakeholders in high‑ambiguity, high‑visibility environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading leaders, building teams, mentoring managers, and developing talent across multiple design disciplines or studios.
• Strong understanding of the interplay among design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, brand execution, and customer experience within the vehicle interior.
• Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design, Transportation Design, Product Design, Human Factors, or a related field.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

• Advanced degree in Industrial Design, Transportation Design, Product Design, Human Factors, or a related field.
• Experience shaping interior component strategy for global automotive brands, regions, or multi‑studio design organizations.
• Experience establishing design operating models, governance, measurement frameworks, or KPIs for enterprise design initiatives.
• Strong executive storytelling and strategic communication skills, with a portfolio of decisions or initiatives that influenced organizational direction.
• Experience connecting physical component design with software, UX, visual design, or other digital interaction disciplines.

Leadership Expectations

This leader is expected to model GM behaviors, lead inclusively, move with urgency, speak fearlessly, and own outcomes while setting a high bar for integrity, customer focus, innovation, and enterprise thinking.

Immigration

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).

Location

This role is categorized as onsite. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location on a full‑time basis. The selected candidate will be required to travel <25% for this role. 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.

Accommodations

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Other Information

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.