Senior Software Engineer, AV Frameworks

GM • San Francisco, CA

19h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Role We’re AV Frameworks within AV Platform Core at General Motors. We build the foundational frameworks that power robotics and autonomous capabilities across distributed compute — with a focus on inter-process communication (IPC), middleware, and developer experience that make complex systems reliable, observable, and fast. As a Senior Software Engineer , you will design and deliver the core communication and runtime building blocks used by AV/Robotics applications on vehicle s , on benches, and in simulation. You’ll work across C++ systems, Linux, and networking/IPC to achieve low-latency messaging, deterministic scheduling, and production-grade reliability at scale. What you’ll do Own design and implementation of high-performance IPC and middleware primitives (publish/subscribe, shared memory, serialization, discovery, QoS). Drive latency, throughput, and determinism improvements through profiling, tracing, benchmarking, and targeted optimizations. Build developer-facing APIs , tooling, and documentation that improve ergonomics, correctness, and velocity for internal customers. Deliver platform-ready components with observability (metrics, logs, traces), robust fault handling, and reproducible performance characteristics. Collaborate cross-functionally with platform OS, drivers, safety, controls, perception, and tooling teams to integrate end-to-end solutions. Apply production rigor : code reviews, testing strategies (unit, integration, soak), performance and regression gates, and rollout/rollback discipline. Mentor engineers, contribute to design reviews, and raise the bar on engineering excellence.

Requirements

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years building systems-level software in modern C++ (C++17/20/23) or Rust on Linux .
• Deep knowledge of concurrency, memory management, lock-free or low-contention patterns, and performance profiling .
• Hands-on experience with IPC/messaging systems and distributed systems fundamentals (serialization, backpressure, flow control, QoS).
• Strong understanding of networking (sockets, TCP/UDP, multicast, NICs, buffers, MTU, packetization) and time synchronization concepts.
• Proficiency with build and CI tooling (Bazel/Buck/ CMake, test frameworks, artifact/versioning strategies).

Nice To Haves

• Robotics/AV middleware: ROS 2 , DDS , gRPC , ZeroMQ , eCAL, shared memory IPC.
• Serialization and data: Protobuf , FlatBuffers, Cap’n Proto, zero-copy techniques, record/ re simulation pipelines.
• Advanced networking/IO: i o_ uring , RDMA/ PCIe messaging, kernel/ b pf - based observability, packet c apture and analysis.
• Real-time Linux and systems constraints (scheduling, CPU isolation, priority inversion mitigation, bounded latency).
• Tracing and performance tooling : perf , LTTng , eBPF , flamegraphs ; defining and enforcing performance SLOs.
• Safety and reliability awareness (diagnostics, failover, degraded modes, basics of ISO 26262 considerations for software components).
• Secondary languages and tooling: Python/Go for tooling/integration

Responsibilities

• Own design and implementation of high-performance IPC and middleware primitives (publish/subscribe, shared memory, serialization, discovery, QoS).
• Drive latency, throughput, and determinism improvements through profiling, tracing, benchmarking, and targeted optimizations.
• Build developer-facing APIs , tooling, and documentation that improve ergonomics, correctness, and velocity for internal customers.
• Deliver platform-ready components with observability (metrics, logs, traces), robust fault handling, and reproducible performance characteristics.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with platform OS, drivers, safety, controls, perception, and tooling teams to integrate end-to-end solutions.
• Apply production rigor : code reviews, testing strategies (unit, integration, soak), performance and regression gates, and rollout/rollback discipline.
• Mentor engineers, contribute to design reviews, and raise the bar on engineering excellence.

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 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees