Senior System Performance Engineer at General Motors

Job Description Role

As a  Senior System Performance Engineer on GM’s AV System Performance Team, you will design, build, and optimize reliable, high-performance software components within General Motors’ Autonomous Vehicle (AV) software stack. You will develop frameworks and tooling that enable AV engineering teams to meet realtime performance requirements across current and future compute platforms.

In this role, you will drive performance-focused engineering efforts within your product area, contribute to technical direction, and elevate engineering practices through hands-on implementation and collaboration. You will also play a key role in improving how we monitor, understand, and resolve performance critical issues across AV software systems.

What you’ll be doing (Responsibilities)

• Collaborate with performance leads and partner engineering teams to align on performance requirements, development practices, and improvement opportunities.

• Lead performance-focused engineering initiatives with moderate ambiguity and cross-team collaboration.

• Contribute to the roadmap for performance tooling, frameworks, and methodologies that support efficient and scalable AV software development.

• Evaluate and prototype new tools, techniques, and technologies to improve runtime performance and developer workflows.

• Design, implement, and maintain tools and automated systems that support performance analysis, debugging, and continuous monitoring.

• Apply and help improve performance engineering standards, processes, and best practices at the team level.

• Analyze software behavior, identify performance bottlenecks, and collaborate with product teams to propose and implement optimizations.

• Mentor junior engineers on performance profiling, optimization strategies, and engineering best practices.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Minimum 3+ years of relevant industry experience.

• Hands-on programming experience with C++ and Python.

• Strong understanding of computer architecture and system-level software fundamentals.

• Proven experience with performance profiling, analysis, tuning, and optimization.

• Experience developing or optimizing high-performance software, ideally for heterogeneous compute environments (e.g., GPUs, DSPs, or accelerators).

• Familiarity with industry benchmarks and workloads (e.g., MLPerf).

• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical decisions within a team or product area.

• Ability to lead projects through ambiguity and deliver results end to end.

• BS, MS in Computer Science or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).

What Will Give You A Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

• Knowledge of GPU performance, OS/driver internals, or systems-level software stacks

• Experience with AI/ML applications or inference software.

• Background with real-time operating systems.

• Experience developing or optimizing software for safety critical systems.

• Minimum 3+ years of relevant industry experience.

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 $128,700 to $261,300. 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.

• Benefits:

GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs. Benefit options include medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan, sickness and accident benefits, life insurance, paid vacation & holidays, tuition assistance programs, employee assistance program, GM vehicle discounts and more.

#GM-AV-1

This role is based remotely, but if the selected candidate lives within a specific mile radius of a GM hub, they will be expected to report to the location three times a week {or other frequency dictated by your 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

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.

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.

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