Principal Software Engineer - Embedded Software Platform

Vacancy Status: This posting is not for an existing vacancy within the organization and is open to new applications. AI Disclosure: As part of the application process, Artificial Intelligence will be used in the hiring process for this role Work Arrangement : Hybrid: This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Markham or Oshawa office three times per week, at minimum.

General Motors is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to set technical direction for the engineering platforms that build, test, integrate, validate, and deliver embedded software for software-defined vehicles. This role is for an enterprise-level technical authority who can define the future-state engineering system, resolve architectural issues that span organizations and domains, and turn strategy into durable platforms, standards, and operating mechanisms.  The successful candidate will shape direction across multiple technical areas and organizations, advise senior and executive leadership on complex tradeoffs, and create alignment across embedded software, cloud, simulation, test, release, cybersecurity, quality, and supplier ecosystems. The role may align to one or more of the four specialization areas below.  Expectations and Impact:   Set multi-year technical direction and target-state architecture for a broad, cross-domain capability or interconnected set of platform capabilities.  Identify systemic constraints and opportunities across the software lifecycle, then define the strategy, investment priorities, and sequencing required to address them.  Resolve the most ambiguous and consequential architectural tradeoffs spanning organizations, product lines, suppliers, technology stacks, and delivery cadences.  Establish enterprise-level principles, standards, governance, reliability expectations, and decision frameworks that scale beyond a single program or team.  Create leverage through platforms, automation, reusable patterns, data, and operating models that materially improve engineering effectiveness and product outcomes.  Influence senior and executive leaders through clear recommendations grounded in technical judgment, risk, cost, quality, and measurable business impact.  Lead through other technical leaders by developing principal and staff engineers, strengthening communities of practice, and raising the quality of architectural decisions.  Remain technically credible and selectively hands-on in the highest-value or highest-risk problems.  Specialization Areas:   1. Virtualization and CI infrastructure   Set the strategy for a scalable virtual development platform spanning embedded, simulation, and cloud workloads. Define enterprise architecture and standards for CI/CD, GitOps, Kubernetes, Terraform and infrastructure as code, progressive delivery, artifact and environment management, security, compliance, and observability. Connect virtualized development to the broader vehicle software lifecycle and guide adoption across organizations.  Visualization and CI-specific basic qualifications   Significant experience setting architecture and technical direction for CI/CD platforms spanning embedded, simulation, and cloud workloads.  Deep experience with Kubernetes cluster operations, Terraform or comparable infrastructure-as-code module design, and production cloud architecture.  Experience establishing enterprise standards for security, compliance, progressive delivery, artifact flows, and observability.  Demonstrated ability to drive adoption of a common virtual development platform across organizations or product lines.  2. Continuous integration and quality gating   Set the end-to-end architecture and policy for how vehicle software is built, composed, validated, promoted, and released. Define the quality-gating model, mainline-protection strategy, evidence standards, integration controls, and release-readiness framework across component,