Staff Software Engineer - Simulation Platform (Galileo)

generalmotors; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 185,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company vehicle program

Job summary

General Motors in Sunnyvale seeks an experienced senior systems engineer to define architecture for Galileo and related simulation platforms. You will design scalable, data-intensive systems, orchestrate tests, and collaborate across teams to deliver reliable engineering workflows.

Role requires 7+ years of production software experience, strong leadership, and proficiency in Python and other modern languages. Hybrid work options and a comprehensive benefits package are offered.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a technical field or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years building and operating production software systems or infrastructure.
• Experience leading cross-team technical initiatives and defining architectures adopted widely.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the technical vision, architecture, and multi-year roadmap for Galileo and related simulation-platform capabilities.
• Design and implement scalable systems to orchestrate millions of simulation miles and large test result volumes.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives integrating simulation, evaluation, data, and developer tooling into engineering workflows.
• Build platform capabilities for test creation, test-suite management, execution orchestration, and data processing.
• Establish patterns for distributed systems, service interfaces, data-intensive workflows, and cloud infra.
• Identify bottlenecks in performance, reliability, cost, usability, and scalable operations.
• Drive engineering excellence via design reviews, CI, tests, observability, and incident learning.
• Convey complex tradeoffs to stakeholders and align risks with organizational goals.
• Mentor engineers and multiply team effectiveness through reusable patterns and docs.
• Partner with product and engineering leaders to translate customer needs into technical deliverables.
• Support GM engineering culture with focus on customer impact, inclusion, and accountability.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Cross-team leadership

Python

Go/C++/Java/TypeScript

Cloud platforms

CI/CD

Observability

Communication

Independent work

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, or related field

Tools

PostgreSQL

BigQuery

DuckDB

Looker

Streamlit

ROS

Job description

Job Description

About the Organization

The Simulation, Evaluation, and Data organization develops the platforms, tools, metrics, and workflows that accelerate GM’s autonomous-driving mission. The VTA team builds the core infrastructure for test organization, test triggering, simulation execution, result analysis, and the data pipelines that connect these workflows.

Our customers include autonomy and robotics engineers who need fast, trustworthy feedback on vehicle behavior; data engineers who build large-scale analysis workflows; and release teams that use evaluation results and performance metrics to make readiness decisions. We partner across Autonomy, Simulation, Systems Engineering, Safety, Data, and other engineering organizations to deliver intuitive, reliable, and scalable developer experiences.

What You’ll Do

• Define and evolve the technical vision, architecture, and multi-year roadmap for Galileo and related simulation-platform capabilities.
• Design and implement highly scalable systems capable of orchestrating and analyzing millions of simulation miles and large volumes of test results.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives that integrate simulation, evaluation, data, and developer tooling into regular engineering and release workflows.
• Build platform capabilities for test creation, test-suite management, execution orchestration, result storage, data processing, visualization, and quantitative analysis.
• Establish durable architectural patterns for distributed systems, service interfaces, data-intensive workflows, and cloud-based infrastructure.
• Identify and resolve bottlenecks in performance, reliability, cost, usability, and operational scalability; use measurable outcomes to guide prioritization.
• Drive engineering excellence through design reviews, code reviews, automated testing, continuous integration, observability, incident learning, and clear operational ownership.
• Make complex technical tradeoffs clear to stakeholders, communicate risks and dependencies, and drive decisions across organizational boundaries.
• Mentor engineers and multiply team effectiveness through technical guidance, reusable patterns, documentation, and constructive feedback.
• Partner with product and engineering leaders to translate customer needs into pragmatic technical strategies and deliverables.
• Help define and embody GM engineering culture and principles, with a focus on customer impact, inclusion, continuous improvement, and accountability.

Your Skills & Abilities

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of experience building and operating production software systems, platforms, or infrastructure.
• Proven experience providing cross-team technical leadership, including defining strategies or architectures adopted by multiple teams.
• Strong experience designing and implementing distributed systems, service-oriented or microservice architectures, and data-intensive applications.
• Production programming experience in Python and at least one additional language such as Go, C++, Java, TypeScript, or a similar language.
• Experience with cloud platforms and modern software delivery practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, observability, and operational excellence.
• Experience building developer tools, automation, or platform capabilities that improve engineering productivity and achieve broad internal adoption.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical decisions, communicate risk, and influence diverse stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently through ambiguity, prioritize high-leverage work, and deliver results across organizational boundaries.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge

• Experience with autonomous vehicles, robotics, simulation, validation, evaluation, or other safety-critical or high-stakes systems.
• Experience designing, running, and interpreting large-scale simulation or field experiments.
• Experience with test frameworks, scenario libraries, metrics systems, release gating, or continuous evaluation pipelines.
• Experience with PostgreSQL or similar relational databases and analytical technologies such as BigQuery, DuckDB, or Amazon Redshift.
• Familiarity with data transformation tools such as dbt, Dataform, or SQLMesh.
• Experience with ROS, Python/C++ interoperability, or modern visualization and dashboarding tools such as Streamlit or Looker.
• Experience optimizing systems under significant latency, throughput, reliability, or cost constraints.
• Experience developing safety-critical software or applying rigorous validation and risk-management practices.
• A track record of creating reusable frameworks, libraries, or platform abstractions that enable other teams to move faster.

Why Join Us

You will work on foundational technology that directly affects how GM develops, validates, and scales autonomous-driving systems. The role offers broad technical scope, meaningful cross-functional influence, and the opportunity to build platforms that turn large-scale simulation and evaluation into faster, safer engineering decisions.

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $185,100 and $284,100. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position.

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.

Company Vehicle

"Upon successful completion of a motor vehicle report review, you will be eligible to participate in a company vehicle evaluation program, through which you will be assigned a General Motors vehicle to drive and evaluate. Note: program participants are required to purchase/lease a qualifying GM vehicle every four years unless one of a limited number of exceptions applies."

This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.

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}.

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.

We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. 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. To learn more, visit How we Hire.

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.