Systems Engineering Manager - Autonomy Behavior

General Motors; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 189,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation benefits

Company vehicle program

Job summary

General Motors is seeking a Manager of Autonomy Behavior Systems Engineering in Sunnyvale, CA. This hybrid role requires leading a team to specify, evaluate, and support autonomous vehicle behavior through evidence-driven systems engineering and scalable simulation.

You will guide the engineering strategy, coordinate with Safety, Legal, Product, and Operations, and ensure delivery of release-proof methods and products for developers and launch decisions.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, robotics, or a related field.
• 8 or more years of professional experience in systems engineering, autonomous vehicles, robotics, vehicle development, simulation, or safety-critical validation.
• Proven record of evaluating autonomous vehicles for a commercial fleet, launch, supervised release, or other high-consequence product decision.
• Deep systems engineering fundamentals, including architecture and decomposition, use-case and scene modeling, requirements strategy, interface definition, verification and validation planning, and traceability.
• Professional experience defining or leading simulation evaluation at scale, including the trade-offs between coverage, confidence, runtime, cost, and simulation validity.
• Strong Python experience. You should be comfortable reviewing production-quality analysis or validation software and understanding how tools and data pipelines support engineering decisions.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to create alignment among teams with different goals, terminology, and technical perspectives.
• Demonstrated stakeholder management and technical leadership across organizational boundaries.
• Experience as a Tech Lead, Technical Lead Manager, or people manager responsible for delivering complex technical work through a team.
• A track record of developing engineers, giving clear feedback, supporting career growth, and building an inclusive, accountable team culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of autonomy behavior systems engineers, setting expectations for technical quality, execution, communication, and growth.
• Set the systems engineering and validation direction for major capabilities and cross-cutting behaviors, connecting requirements, coverage, simulation validity, metrics, acceptance criteria, and release evidence.
• Guide the development of scalable behavior evaluation and simulation systems across synthetic tests, road data, and counterfactual references, including scenario sourcing, orchestration, data quality, and reproducibility.
• Partner across Engineering, Safety, Legal, Product, and Operations to resolve ambiguity, build alignment, and communicate clear recommendations for engineering, release, and launch decisions.

Skills

Python

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Communication

Systems engineering

Simulation evaluation

Technical leadership

Team development

Education

Master’s degree in systems engineering or related field

Tools

General Motors tools

Job description

Work Arrangement

This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to

Job Description

This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Sunnyvale, CA three times per week at minimum or other frequency dictated by the business.

The Role

As a Manager of Autonomy Behavior Systems Engineering, you will lead a team responsible for how autonomous vehicle behavior is specified, evaluated, and supported by evidence. You will set technical direction while creating the conditions for engineers to do their best work across behavior, software, simulation, safety, legal, product, and operations.

You will bring deep experience evaluating autonomous vehicles in commercial fleets and understand the difference between a test that produces a result and a validation system people can trust. You will help define the systems engineering approach, connect requirements to simulation and release evidence, and ensure the team delivers methods and products that support developers, release decisions, and launch decisions.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and develop a team of autonomy behavior systems engineers, setting expectations for technical quality, execution, communication, and growth.


• Set the systems engineering and validation direction for major capabilities and cross-cutting behaviors, connecting requirements, coverage, simulation validity, metrics, acceptance criteria, and release evidence.


• Guide the development of scalable behavior evaluation and simulation systems across synthetic tests, road data, and counterfactual references, including scenario sourcing, orchestration, data quality, and reproducibility.


• Partner across Engineering, Safety, Legal, Product, and Operations to resolve ambiguity, build alignment, and communicate clear recommendations for engineering, release, and launch decisions.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Master’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, robotics, or a related field.


• 8 or more years of professional experience in systems engineering, autonomous vehicles, robotics, vehicle development, simulation, or safety-critical validation.


• A proven record of evaluating autonomous vehicles for a commercial fleet, launch, supervised release, or other high-consequence product decision.


• Deep systems engineering fundamentals, including architecture and decomposition, use‑case and scene modeling, requirements strategy, interface definition, verification and validation planning, and traceability.


• Professional experience defining or leading simulation evaluation at scale, including the trade‑offs between coverage, confidence, runtime, cost, and simulation validity.


• Strong Python experience. You should be comfortable reviewing production‑quality analysis or validation software and understanding how tools and data pipelines support engineering decisions.


• Strong communication skills and the ability to create alignment among teams with different goals, terminology, and technical perspectives.


• Demonstrated stakeholder management and technical leadership across organizational boundaries. You have led work through influence, not only through formal authority.


• Experience as a Tech Lead, Technical Lead Manager, or people manager responsible for delivering complex technical work through a team.


• A track record of developing engineers, giving clear feedback, supporting career growth, and building an inclusive, accountable team culture.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred)

• Human benchmarking for behavior and safety evaluation, including attentive human benchmark construction, human percentile methods, expert review, and the limits of human references.


• Experience with hazard analysis, including structured hazard analysis, scenario‑based hazard analysis, failure analysis, or similar methods.


• Experience building or using a safety case, writing or reviewing safety claims, and determining what validation evidence is needed to support those claims.


• Experience with risk quantification, risk acceptance, severity and exposure reasoning, risk budgets, and mitigation decisions.


• Experience turning legal or regulatory expectations into a defensible compliance strategy with requirements, metrics, test coverage, and documented claims.


• Experience designing validation lifecycles that connect scope definition, requirements, hazard analysis, coverage planning, test generation, scorecards, release decisions, and continuous monitoring.


• Experience hiring, organizing, and prioritizing a technical team through changing product and program needs.

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 ($189,300 - $290,000). 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.

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.

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.