Senior Software Systems Engineer - Autonomous Vehicles

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

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Retirement savings plan

GM vehicle discounts

Job summary

General Motors in Sunnyvale, CA is seeking an experienced AV evaluation and validation engineer to design, implement, and maintain robust processes for assessing autonomous vehicle software performance. You will define test frameworks, scenarios, and metrics, and you will build scalable testing and simulation systems for data collection, analysis, and evidence-based decision making.

Strong collaboration across teams and clear communication of findings are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD in engineering or related field
• Strong Python and data analysis skills
• Experience with testing/evaluation frameworks for complex software/systems
• Proficient with GitHub, Jira, and similar tools

Responsibilities

• Define AV evaluation and validation processes from concept to implementation
• Design scalable testing and simulation frameworks for test generation and data collection
• Implement infrastructure to assess AV performance using simulation and real data
• Evaluate simulation validity and sim-to-real correlation
• Identify metrics and analytic methods to improve evaluation workflows and evidence
• Support automated triage and root-cause analysis for AV issues
• Communicate insights and recommendations to engineers and leadership
• Maintain scalable processes to monitor evaluation KPIs

Skills

Python programming

Testing frameworks

GitHub/Jira tooling

End-to-end ownership

Analytical/systems engineering

Root-cause analysis

Problem solving

Cross-functional communication

Data-driven insights

Education

Bachelor’s/Master’s/PhD in engineering/physics/math/data science

Tools

GitHub

Jira

Job description

Job Overview

You will be part of a team that drives systematic and data-driven improvements to autonomous vehicle software by designing, implementing, and maintaining robust processes for evaluation and validation.

What you’ll be doing

• Define AV evaluation and validation processes from initial concept through implementation, including test-framework requirements, scenario and test-suite design, coverage, metrics, and the evidence needed to assess confidence in system performance.
• Design and implement scalable testing and simulation frameworks for test generation, execution, data collection, result aggregation, and reproducible analysis.
• Provide hands-on implementation of infrastructure and data solutions to assess confidence in AV performance using simulation and on-road data.
• Develop and apply methods to evaluate simulation validity, sim-to-real correlation, and the predictive value of simulation results.
• Proactively scope and identify metrics, sampling approaches, and analytical methods needed to improve evaluation workflows and close gaps in evidence.
• Contribute to automated triage and root-cause analysis strategies for AV deficiencies, regressions, and uncertainty in an end-to-end stack.
• Articulate insights, summaries, limitations, and recommendations to engineers, technical leaders, and other stakeholders based on continuous analysis of AV performance.
• Define and maintain scalable processes to identify, monitor, and improve evaluation KPIs and confidence measures.
• Help connect continuous-improvement activities to the evidence needed to support safety, systems, and downstream readiness decisions.

What you must have

• Strong Python programming skills, with experience building clear, maintainable analysis, evaluation, or testing tools.
• Experience designing or implementing testing, simulation, or evaluation frameworks for complex software/hardware or cyber-physical systems.
• Experience with GitHub, Jira, or equivalent tools.
• Demonstrated end-to-end ownership, from defining a problem through delivering and communicating the desired outcome.
• A track record of analytical and systems-engineering work involving complex software/hardware systems or ambiguous AI functions.
• Experience performing root-cause analysis and applying analytical methods to system or behavioral performance data.
• Ability to creatively solve problems with limited supervision, learn quickly, and operate effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills, including the ability to communicate data-driven findings to leadership.
• Bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in engineering, physics, applied mathematics, statistics, data science, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Bonus points!

• Experience with autonomous vehicles, ADAS, robotics, or production-grade robotic systems.
• Hands‑on experience with simulation environments, scenario generation, large-scale test execution, or analysis of simulation results.
• Experience with statistical methods for product evaluation, risk assessment, sampling, or confidence analysis.
• Experience developing data-driven metrics, scorecards, coverage measures, or regression-detection methods.
• Experience with verification and validation, simulation-to-real-world correlation, test automation, or large-scale evaluation systems.
• Passion for understanding complex robotics and AI systems and turning their behavior into measurable evidence.

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 New York, Colorado, California, or Washington. The salary range for this role is $153,200 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.

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

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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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Company Culture

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