Principal Software Engineer

General Motors • Sunnyvale, CA

79d • $197,600 - $303,800

About The Position

General Motors is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership and architectural direction across engineering pillars that support GM Commerce. 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.

Requirements

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years in a principal, staff, or architect-level role.
• Extensive experience in architecture and design (architecture, design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems.
• Extensive experience in one of the JVM languages, Java / Kotlin + SpringBoot.
• Proven success designing and scaling distributed, cloud-native systems and experience with at least one of the public cloud providers Azure, AWS, GCP.
• 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.
• A passion for staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and technologies.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Experience launching eCommerce features or platforms.
• Hands-on experience integrating 3rd Party API and commercial software into ecommerce products.
• Deep knowledge in technology transformation through building high scale, fault tolerant, resilient system.

Responsibilities

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

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision insurance
• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees