Senior Software Engineer (Manipulation)

General Motors LLC; Mountain View (CA); Remote; USD 129,000 - 234,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Relocation assistance

Vehicle discounts

Job summary

General Motors is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to advance manipulation planning, collision-free motion, and the execution layer on FANUC arms and mobile manipulators. You will work with C++, Python, and ROS 2, collaborating across robotics teams to deliver reliable motion in production environments.

The role emphasizes planning, perception, and control interfaces, with a focus on cycle-time and reliability requirements. Remote work is available with hub-based visits as needed in California.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional engineering experience with 2+ years in motion planning or manipulation.
• Experience deploying manipulation planning on physical arms in production or field settings.
• Experience meeting a cycle time requirement, not only a feasibility requirement.
• MS degree or higher in Robotics, CS, ME, or closely related field.

Responsibilities

• Build and own manipulation planning capability: collision-free planning, trajectory optimization, and time parameterization.
• Implement and tune planners for target applications with cycle-time requirements.
• Define interfaces between perception, planning, and control and ensure scalability.

Skills

Motion planning

Manipulation

C++

Python

ROS 2

MoveIt

Simulation

Education

MS in Robotics or related

Tools

MoveIt

OMPL

TrajOpt

Drake

ROS

Job description

Job Description

General Motors is reimagining automation at economy scale to make manufacturing more competitive in the USA. You are a Senior Software Engineer who has deep experience in building manipulation planning and control libraries. The work covers collision-free motion generation, trajectory optimization, and the execution layer that turns a planned motion into repeatable movement on real arms. The target applications are C++, Python, and ROS 2 on FANUC arms and mobile manipulators, under cycle time and reliability requirements. You have the taste to see important problems, the talent to build great solutions and the grit to get it done. This role sits in the core robotics team and works alongside controls and perception engineers.

Opportunity

• Build and own manipulation planning capability: collision-free planning, trajectory optimization, and time parameterization.
• Implement and tune planners for the target applications, with cycle time as a first-class requirement.
• Build the collision environment representation from perception output and static scene models.
• Implement Cartesian and constrained motion planning for approach, grasp, and place phases.
• Handle the mobile manipulation cases: planning with base placement, redundancy resolution, and whole-body motion.
• Build the execution layer that monitors trajectory tracking and reacts to deviation and contact.
• Define the interface between perception, planning, and control, and keep it clean as the system grows.
• Diagnose planning failures from field data and turn them into regression cases.

Job Requirements

• Experience 6+ years of professional engineering experience, with 2+ years in motion planning or manipulation.
• Experience deploying manipulation planning on physical arms in a production or field setting.
• Experience meeting a cycle time requirement, not only a feasibility requirement.
• Education M.S. degree or higher in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
• Equivalent industry experience with demonstrated simulation depth can be considered.

Core technical background

Strong grounding in motion planning: sampling-based methods, optimization-based methods, and their respective failure modes. Solid kinematics and dynamics: forward and inverse kinematics, redundancy resolution, singularity handling, and Jacobian methods. Experience with trajectory optimization and time-optimal path parameterization. Experience with collision checking and distance queries, including performance characteristics. Hands-on experience with MoveIt, OMPL, TrajOpt, Drake, or comparable frameworks. Strong C++ plus Python. Hands-on experience with ROS or ROS 2.

Systems mindset

Ability to judge how much fidelity a given validation question requires. Comfortable trading simulation speed against accuracy.

Collaboration

Ability to work effectively with remote teams across multiple time zones. Treats simulation as a product with internal users.

Nice to have

• Experience with FANUC arms or the FANUC controller interfaces.
• Experience with force control, impedance control, or contact-rich manipulation.
• Experience with mobile manipulation and whole-body control.
• Experience with learned or hybrid planning approaches.
• Prior open-source contributions to MoveIt or the ROS manipulation ecosystem.

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 compensation may not be representative for positions located outside of the California Bay Area. The salary range for this role is $129,400 to $234,100. 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:

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.

This role is based remotely, but if the selected candidate lives within a specific mile radius of a GM hub, they will be expected to report to the location three times a week {or other frequency dictated by your manager}. Relocation benefits are available for candidates who qualify under company policy.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 (avature.net).

As a part of our Talent Community, you will receive updates about GM, open roles, career insights and more.

Please note that filling out the form below will not add you to our Talent Community automatically; you need to use the link above.