Principal Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer

General Motors is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership and architectural direction across engineering pillars that support Vehicle Retail Experiences. This role will be responsible for defining, influencing, and driving the long-term technical vision of our platform to ensure scalability, performance, and innovation.

As a senior technical leader, you will partner with senior engineering managers, staff engineers, and cross-functional stakeholders to establish the technical bar, enable the adoption of modern engineering practices, and deliver high-quality, customer-focused solutions. You will be expected to provide architectural guidance, conduct design/code reviews, and mentor engineering talent across multiple teams.

What You'll Do

1. Define and evolve the overarching technical vision and architecture across multiple product pillars.
2. Drive consistent adoption of modern engineering practices, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, and resilient.
3. Guide cloud-native architecture patterns leveraging Java, Quarkus, React, TypeScript, and modern AI/ML technologies.
4. Provide technical direction and architectural guidance to engineering managers and staff engineers across all pillars.
5. Serve as a trusted advisor for critical design decisions, technology adoption, and integration strategies.
6. Partner with product and business stakeholders to align technical strategies with long-term business outcomes.
7. Champion engineering best practices including CI/CD pipelines, observability, performance optimization, and automation.
8. Ensure adherence to coding standards, design patterns, and maintainable architecture across diverse teams.
9. Drive modernization initiatives such as legacy migrations and adoption of containerized, cloud-native approaches.
10. Mentor and grow senior technical talent, raising overall engineering maturity.
11. Foster alignment and collaboration across globally distributed engineering organizations.
12. Influence leadership beyond engineering by advocating for innovation, technical investments, and platform scalability.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years in a principal, staff, or architect-level role.
• Deep expertise in Java, Quarkus, React, and TypeScript, with strong breadth across backend, frontend, cloud, AI/ML, and DevOps.
• Proven success designing and scaling distributed, cloud-native systems.
• Strong understanding of security, observability, performance, and high-availability architectures.
• Demonstrated ability to influence at the organizational level, not just at the team level.
• Experience guiding multiple product areas or platforms within a large-scale, multi-pillar environment.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with both engineers and executives.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Experience launching AI-driven features or platforms.
• Hands-on experience integrating LLMs into enterprise products.
• Familiarity with AI bias detection, content filtering, and governance.

Additional Information: GM DOES NOT PROVIDE IMMIGRATION-RELATED SPONSORSHIP FOR THIS ROLE. DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS ROLE IF YOU WILL NEED GM IMMIGRATION SPONSORSHIP NOW OR IN THE FUTURE. THIS INCLUDES DIRECT COMPANY SPONSORSHIP, ENTRY OF GM AS THE IMMIGRATION EMPLOYER OF RECORD ON A GOVERNMENT FORM, AND ANY WORK AUTHORIZATION REQUIRING A WRITTEN SUBMISSION OR OTHER IMMIGRATION SUPPORT FROM THE COMPANY (e.g., H-1B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.)

This job is not eligible for relocation benefits. Any relocation costs would be the responsibility of the selected candidate.

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 259,000 to 369,700. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position.

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.

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-beingat work and at homeso you can focus on realizing your ambitions.

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 at Careers.Accommodations@GM.com or call us at 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.