Systems Engineering Manager - Autonomy Behavior

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

Benefits offered by this job

Company vehicle program

Relocation benefits

Job summary

General Motors in California is seeking a leader for the Autonomy Behavior Systems Engineering function. You will guide a team that specifies, evaluates, and supports autonomous vehicle behavior with evidence-driven decisions.

You will shape the systems engineering approach, tie requirements to simulation and release evidence, and ensure scalable methods and products support developers, release, and launch decisions.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, robotics, or related field.
• 8+ years of professional experience in systems engineering, autonomous vehicles, robotics, vehicle development, simulation, or safety-critical validation.
• Proven record evaluating autonomous vehicles for a commercial fleet, launch, or other high-consequence product decision.
• Fundamentals in architecture, decomposition, requirements strategy, interface definition, and V&V planning.
• Experience with simulation evaluation at scale and trade-offs between coverage, runtime, and cost.
• Strong Python experience with production-quality analysis/validation software.
• Excellent communication and ability to align diverse teams.
• Demonstrated stakeholder management and technical leadership across boundaries.
• Experience as Tech Lead/Technical Lead Manager or people manager.
• A track record of developing engineers and fostering an inclusive culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of autonomy behavior systems engineers, setting expectations for quality, execution, communication, and growth.
• Set systems engineering and validation direction for major capabilities, linking requirements, coverage, and release evidence.
• Guide scalable behavior evaluation and simulation across synthetic tests, road data, and counterfactual references.
• Partner with Engineering, Safety, Legal, Product, and Operations to resolve ambiguity and align decisions.

Skills

Systems engineering

Autonomous vehicles

Python

Team leadership

Communication

Stakeholder management

Technical leadership

Simulation at scale

Requirements traceability

Education

Master’s degree in relevant field

Tools

Simulation software

Job description

Job Description

Work Arrangement: This role is categorized as Remote/hybrid. Remote: This role is based remotely but if you live within a 50-mile radius of Austin, Detroit, Warren, Milford, Sunnyvale, CA, you are expected to report to that location three times per week, at minimum.

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 Qualifications)

• 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.

#LI-SA2

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. The selected candidate will be required to travel <25% for this role. 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

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