Staff Software Engineer – Core OS, Vehicle Compute

General Motors; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 330,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Tuition assistance

Vehicle discounts

Paid vacation

Job summary

General Motors is seeking a senior software engineer to help define the OS platform for its software-defined vehicles. You will own hypervisor integration, VM configurations, and device virtualization across embedded Linux, Yocto, Android, and QNX, while leading debugging and performance optimization across hardware, firmware, and kernel layers.

The role emphasizes architectural leadership, cross-team mentoring, and advancing CI/CD with automated testing and release-quality software.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of professional experience in embedded, systems, or kernel-level software development in automotive or similar domains.
• Deep expertise in OS-level software on Arm-based SoCs across multiple areas (hypervisor integration, VM configuration, device virtualization, RTOS, Linux kernel, bootloaders, Yocto).

Responsibilities

• Own hypervisor and VM capabilities including definitions, partitioning, device passthrough, and virtio models.
• Design and optimize inter-VM communication for throughput and determinism.
• Enable guest OSes across embedded Linux, Yocto, Android, QNX with shared platform services and tooling.
• Implement boot/secure-boot chain across partitions and ensure platform integrity.
• Develop platform services for governance, health monitoring, fault detection, and recovery.
• Develop container runtimes and workload management for in-vehicle apps with isolation and updates.
• Lead root-cause analysis using traces and low-level tools spanning hardware to user space.
• Drive CI/CD, bench/HIL automation, and code reviews; mentor cross-team.

Skills

Embedded software

Linux kernel

C/C++

Python

Shell scripting

Git/GitHub

CI/CD

Debugging/root-causes

Architecture leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/CE or related

10+ years embedded/kernel software experience

Tools

GitHub

Yocto

Open source tooling

Embedded Linux

KVM/Arm

Job description

Job Description

At General Motors, our product teams are redefining mobility. Through a human-centered design process, we create vehicles and experiences that are designed not just to be seen, but to be felt. We’re turning today’s impossible into tomorrow’s standard —from breakthrough hardware and battery systems to intuitive design, intelligent software, and next-generation safety and entertainment features.

Every day, our products move millions of people as we aim to make driving safer, smarter, and more connected, shaping the future of transportation on a global scale

The Role

The Core OS group is a newly formed team standing up the operating-system foundation GM's software-defined vehicles run on: the virtualization and platform-services layer that lets embedded Linux, Android, and QNX share vehicle compute safely and efficiently. As one of the founding engineers, you'll set technical direction from a blank sheet across hypervisor integration, guest OS enablement, resource partitioning, the boot and secure-boot chain, container runtime, and the health and fault-management services that keep the platform reliable in production. The architecture you choose now becomes the platform every GM vehicle software team builds on, and getting it right means debugging across boundaries most engineers never cross — guest to host, software to silicon, between partitions with different safety requirements.

What You’ll Do

• Own critical hypervisor and virtual machine capabilities, including virtual machine definitions, CPU and memory partitioning, device assignment and passthrough, and virtio-based device models.
• Design and optimize communication between virtual machines using shared memory, message passing, and virtualized input/output for throughput, latency, and deterministic behavior.
• Enable and maintain guest operating systems across embedded Linux, including Yocto-based distributions, Android, and QNX, with consistent access to platform services, time synchronization, lifecycle control, interfaces, and developer tooling.
• Implement and optimize the boot and secure-boot chain across partitions, including startup sequencing, boot-time performance, and platform-integrity verification.
• Build platform services for resource governance, health monitoring, watchdogs, fault detection, fault handling, and recovery, while meeting automotive safety and availability requirements.
• Develop container-runtime and workload-management capabilities for in-vehicle applications, including isolation, resource limits, lifecycle management, updates, and rollbacks.
• Profile, optimize, and debug CPU, memory, input/output, and interrupt behavior across the virtualized stack. Lead root-cause analysis using traces, logs, and low-level tools to resolve issues spanning guest operating systems, hypervisors, firmware, and silicon.
• Improve engineering quality through continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), bench and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) automation, validation strategies, Git and GitHub workflows, and code reviews. Mentor engineers and collaborate with silicon enablement, guest operating system, board support package (BSP), functional safety, and cybersecurity teams.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field; or equivalent practical experience.
• Ten or more years of professional experience in embedded, systems, or kernel-level software development, including production software in automotive or similarly complex embedded domains.
• Deep expertise in operating-system-level software on Arm-based system-on-chips (SoCs), with experience in several of the following areas:
• Hypervisor integration, virtual machine configuration, and device virtualization
• Real-time operating systems and deterministic scheduling
• Linux kernel subsystems, kernel configuration, and low-level system behavior
• Bootloaders, secure boot, and platform startup sequencing
• Experience delivering commercial embedded systems using Yocto or comparable embedded build systems.
• Strong experience with system performance, optimization, and complex debugging, including root-cause analysis across hardware, firmware, hypervisors, kernels, and user space.
• Experience with build systems and development tools, including Git, GitHub, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release-quality engineering for platform software.
• Strong proficiency in C and C++, plus practical experience with Python and shell scripting for automation, tooling, and debugging.
• Demonstrated technical leadership through architecture contributions, mentoring, design reviews, code reviews, and cross-team execution.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence technical decisions and explain complex system-level topics clearly.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Hands‑on experience with hypervisors such as Gunyah, QNX Hypervisor, Xen, or KVM/Arm, including virtio device model development.
• Experience with QNX Software Development Platform (SDP), Android Open Source Project (AOSP), Android Automotive, or Yocto as guest environments on virtualized platforms.
• Experience with automotive functional safety, including ISO 26262, Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASIL), freedom from interference, safety islands, or health‑monitoring frameworks.
• Experience with automotive cybersecurity, including ISO/SAE 21434.
• Experience with container runtimes such as Open Container Initiative (OCI)-compliant runtimes, Podman, or systemd-based isolation in resource‑constrained environments.
• Familiarity with trusted execution environments, secure‑boot chains, and key management on embedded platforms.
• Experience with Rust in systems or safety‑relevant contexts.
• Strong command‑line experience in Linux or UNIX environments, including tools such as GDB, perf, ftrace, strace, and hypervisor‑level tracing.
• Contributions to open‑source virtualization or operating‑system projects.

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 salary range for this role is $160,200–$330,400. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position, as well as the geography of the selected candidate.

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 and holidays, tuition assistance programs, employee assistance program, GM vehicle discounts, and more.

This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week {or other frequency dictated by their 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.

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.