Staff Data Engineer

GM•Austin, TX

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

This is a hybrid, hands-on individual-contributor engineering role focused on designing, building, and evolving modern cloud-native enterprise applications for Data Privacy initiatives. The engineer will own complex initiatives from discovery and technical design through implementation, deployment, and ongoing operation, and will shape architecture and engineering direction without formal people-management responsibilities. The posting describes the work as building scalable microservices and secure APIs with Java, Spring Boot, and Microsoft Azure while partnering with product managers, Legal, architects, and cross-functional teams to deliver business outcomes. Data Privacy knowledge is helpful but prior privacy experience is not required. The successful candidate will provide technical direction and end-to-end delivery, make architecture decisions, and help teams resolve complex technical challenges in a fast-paced Agile environment. The role includes developing resilient cloud-native services, driving design discussions and code reviews, improving engineering practices and operational readiness, and mentoring engineers through technical guidance, pairing, and knowledge sharing. The position is categorized as hybrid, with an expectation to report to the Warren Global Technical Center or Austin Technical Center at least three times per week, or more often if business needs require it. The expected base compensation is $159,200–$220,500, with actual compensation determined by factors relevant to the position. An incentive pay program offers payouts based on company performance, job level, and individual performance. The role may be eligible for relocation benefits. Following successful motor vehicle report review, the employee may participate in a company vehicle evaluation program and be assigned a GM vehicle; participants are generally required to purchase or lease a qualifying GM vehicle every four years, subject to limited exceptions. GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role.

Requirements

At least 8 years of professional software development experience building production-grade applications.
Experience designing and operating large-scale, highly available systems in a global enterprise environment.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or a closely related technical field, or equivalent demonstrable professional software engineering experience.
Demonstrated ability to coach and elevate engineers through technical guidance, mentoring, and pairing.
Ability to foster collaboration, psychological safety, and continuous learning through day-to-day technical leadership.
Ability to simplify complex problems and present a clear technical perspective to non-technical stakeholders.
Strong hands-on experience with Java and Spring Boot, including microservices-based architectures.
Ability to champion change and drive adoption of tools, patterns, and engineering practices.
Proven experience designing, building, and consuming RESTful APIs.
Practical experience with Microsoft Azure, preferably including container-based workloads.
Strong experience with event-driven architectures, messaging, and streaming platforms such as Kafka, Event Hubs, or similar.
Experience with Kubernetes (AKS) or similar technologies for container orchestration, deployment, and scaling.
Working knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases such as PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, Redis, or Cassandra.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and Git-based workflows.
Solid understanding of cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, resiliency, and scalability patterns.
Experience working in Agile/Scrum development environments.
Demonstrated ability to drive complex technical initiatives, lead design discussions, and influence architecture and engineering decisions through hands-on contribution.
Hands-on experience with observability tooling, including logging, metrics, and tracing.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a bias toward action, ownership, and pragmatic delivery.
Ability to communicate technical concepts and tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Data Privacy background or experience; it is helpful but not required.
Practical experience with security best practices, including OAuth2/OIDC, JWT, and secrets management.
Experience modernizing legacy or monolithic applications into microservices and cloud-native architectures.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence across teams and levels.

Responsibilities

Own technical direction and end-to-end delivery of services and initiatives, from requirements and architecture through development, testing, deployment, observability, support, and continuous improvement.
Design, develop, and evolve scalable microservices and RESTful APIs using Java and Spring Boot on Microsoft Azure.
Make and communicate architecture decisions that balance business needs, security, reliability, scalability, maintainability, and delivery speed.
Build secure, resilient services using Azure capabilities, container-based workloads, and cloud-native design patterns.
Translate business needs into technical designs, implementation plans, and incremental delivery milestones with Legal, product teams, architects, and other stakeholders.
Drive engineering work across team and organizational boundaries, resolve technical dependencies, and keep complex initiatives moving toward delivery.
Apply event-driven architectures, messaging, and streaming platforms such as Kafka or Azure Event Hubs.
Use CI/CD pipelines, automation, and DevOps practices to improve deployment quality and operational readiness.
Apply relational and NoSQL databases, selecting technologies and data patterns appropriate to each use case.
Establish and improve observability using logging, metrics, and tracing, and use operational insights to guide continuous improvement.
Use AI-assisted development tools thoughtfully while maintaining code quality, security, and engineering judgment.
Lead technical design discussions, architecture forums, and code reviews; explain tradeoffs and help teams converge on effective solutions.
Mentor and support other engineers through technical guidance, pairing, and knowledge sharing, without direct people-management responsibilities.
Identify opportunities to improve engineering practices, tooling, and platform capabilities, and drive adoption of effective changes.

Benefits

Health and wellbeing benefit programs, including medical, dental, and vision options.
Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Accounts.
Retirement savings plan.
Sickness and accident benefits.
Life insurance.
Paid vacation and holidays.
Tuition assistance programs.
Employee assistance program.
GM vehicle discounts.
Incentive pay program based on company performance, job level, and individual performance.
Potential eligibility for relocation benefits.
Potential participation in a company vehicle evaluation program, subject to eligibility and program conditions.