Senior Sensor Validation Engineer - Hybrid Autonomous Driving

General Motors; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 153,000 - 234,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

GM vehicle discounts

Health insurance

Retirement savings plan

Paid vacation & holidays

Job summary

General Motors is seeking a Senior Sensor Validation Engineer to bridge low-level sensor performance with vehicle integration. You will develop characterization plans for cameras, lidar, and radar, and drive on-vehicle validation campaigns to ensure robust perception across driving scenarios.

The role involves cross-functional collaboration with hardware, perception, and simulation teams, and requires hands-on data collection on benchtop and vehicle platforms with hybrid work options.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of dedicated experience in sensor validation, characterization, or test engineering across optical, lidar, or radar systems.
• Demonstrated ability to design vehicle level validation tests.
• Experience with L4 autonomous vehicles and associated behaviors, challenges, and validation needs.
• Strong domain knowledge of sensor physics principles (optics, electromagnetics, wave propagation, photonics, signal processing).
• Experience using component-level test equipment and lab facilities (darkrooms, collimators, target boards, anechoic chambers, etc.).
• Hands-on experience with benchtop characterization and on-vehicle validation, including data collection and integration constraints (FOV, KOZ, ISP tuning).
• Understanding of sensor calibration, time synchronization (PTP/gPTP), and sensor fusion concepts.
• Proficiency in data analysis and programming languages (Python, MATLAB) for processing sensor data and evaluating metrics.

Responsibilities

• Develop comprehensive characterization plans to inform next generation sensors (camera, lidar, radar) with quantitative evaluation.
• Develop vehicle validation tests to ensure performance and safety across autonomous driving environments.
• Plan and execute on-vehicle data collection campaigns on closed courses and public roads to evaluate sensor integration and performance.
• Evaluate low-level sensor performance metrics, including SNR, dynamic range, optical distortion, point cloud density, and RCS accuracy.
• Transition validated sensor modules from bench setups to vehicle platforms, analyzing placement, FOV overlap, KOZ constraints, and other metrics.
• Partner cross-functionally with perception and hardware design teams to root cause system-level anomalies.

Skills

Sensor validation experience

Vehicle-level validation design

Python programming

MATLAB programming

Sensor fusion concepts

Time synchronization knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Optical/Computer Engineering

Tools

Python

MATLAB

Lab equipment experience

Job description

General Motors is seeking a Senior Sensor Validation Engineer to bridge low-level sensor performance with vehicle integration. You will develop characterization plans for cameras, lidar, and radar, and drive on-vehicle validation campaigns to ensure robust perception across driving scenarios.

The role involves cross-functional collaboration with hardware, perception, and simulation teams, and requires hands-on data collection on benchtop and vehicle platforms with hybrid work options.