Principal Software Engineer – Core OS, Vehicle Compute

Description

The company builds vehicles and in-car experiences, from hardware and battery systems to software and safety features, and its products move millions of people every day.

The Core OS group is newly formed and builds the operating-system base that the next generation of vehicle software runs on. Its scope covers hypervisors and virtualization, safety partitioning and health management, container runtime and workload orchestration, and the boot and secure-boot chain. The goal is for Linux, Android and QNX to share one high-compute platform safely and efficiently.

This is a hybrid role. The selected candidate must report to a specific location at least 3 times a week, or at a different frequency set by their manager.

Responsibilities

• Act as the senior technical authority and system architect for the Core OS layer. Decide which platform problems matter most, then define the architecture and drive the solutions.
• Set the long-term roadmap for hypervisors, virtualization, virtual machine lifecycle, resource partitioning, inter-virtual-machine communication, and the boot and secure-boot chain.
• Design a multi-operating-system foundation so embedded Linux (including Yocto-based distributions), Android and QNX can run on shared vehicle compute with consistent platform services and interfaces.
• Define the platform safety architecture, covering freedom from interference between partitions, health monitoring, and fault detection and recovery. Work with functional safety and cybersecurity teams on it.
• Define the container and workload-management architecture for on-vehicle execution, covering isolation, lifecycle, resource governance and updateability.
• Own the system-wide performance strategy for compute efficiency, latency, boot time, memory footprint and deterministic behavior. Lead optimization across software and hardware.
• Make build-versus-buy and technology-selection decisions for hypervisor, real-time operating system and runtime components. Lead the technical relationships with those suppliers.
• Mentor Staff and Senior Software Engineers and set engineering standards and review practices for the new organization.
• Lead complex root-cause investigations across virtualization, operating-system and silicon boundaries. Represent Core OS in technical councils, architecture reviews and cross-functional design forums, and define ownership boundaries with adjacent platform teams.
• Set the technical interfaces to silicon, guest OS and functional-safety groups, and guide engineers across teams toward a foundation that meets production performance, reliability and safety requirements in millions of vehicles.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 15+ years of experience in embedded, kernel-level or systems software, including production-grade systems.
• Proven experience architecting operating-system or virtualization platforms for high-performance or safety-critical systems.
• Deep expertise in at least two of: Type 1 hypervisors and virtualization, real-time operating systems, embedded Linux internals, secure boot and platform integrity.
• Strong knowledge of Arm SoC architecture, including memory management, interrupt and I/O virtualization, and hardware-enforced isolation.
• Experience leading multi-team or cross-functional technical programs from concept through production.
• Working proficiency with Git, GitHub, CI/CD, automated testing and performance profiling.
• Strong communication and influence skills with technical, cross-functional and executive audiences.
• Optional: Master's degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or a related field.
• Optional: Hands-on architecture experience with hypervisors such as Gunyah, QNX Hypervisor, Xen or KVM/Arm, including virtio-based device virtualization.
• Optional: Expertise in automotive functional safety, including ASIL decomposition, safety-island architecture, freedom-from-interference arguments and safety-framework integration.
• Optional: Experience with container runtimes and workload orchestration in resource-constrained or embedded environments.
• Optional: Familiarity with Yocto-based Linux distributions, AOSP or Android Automotive, and QNX Software Development Platform as guest or host environments.
• Optional: Familiarity with health monitoring, fail-operational and fail-safe mechanisms, and platform-resiliency design.
• Optional: Experience with AUTOSAR, SOAFEE, or comparable automotive platform standards.
• Optional: Experience with over-the-air and continuous-update architectures.
• Optional: Contributions to open-source virtualization or operating-system projects.
• Optional: Proven ability to set technical vision, influence across organizations and represent a company in cross-industry engagements.

Conditions

The salary range is $216,400 to $450,400. The actual base salary depends on job-related factors and the selected candidate's location. This is a good-faith estimate under applicable state law.

The role is hybrid: report to a specific location at least 3 times a week, or as your manager sets.

Relocation benefits are available for candidates who qualify under company policy.

Equal opportunity: the company does not tolerate unlawful discrimination and works to build an inclusive workplace.

Benefits

• Health and wellbeing programs, including medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Retirement savings plans, paid vacation and holidays, tuition assistance, employee assistance programs and life insurance.
• GM vehicle discounts.