Principal Software Engineer, Embedded Linux Platforms & Connectivity

Job Description

Work arrangement: On-Site: This role is categorized as on-site. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Austin, TX five days per week.

The Role

General Motors is seeking a highly skilled and experienced professional to join our team as a Principal Software Engineer, Embedded Linux Platforms and Connectivity. As a global leader in the automotive industry, General Motors is committed to delivering high-quality vehicles that exceed customer expectations. This role will serve as a senior technical leader for next-generation automotive computing platforms, driving embedded Linux platform strategy, system architecture, and cross-functional execution across board bring-up, kernel and device driver integration, connectivity, diagnostics, health monitoring, and production readiness for our in-vehicle infotainment and embedded radio systems.

What You’ll Do

• Define and drive the technical architecture for embedded Linux platform software across board bring-up, kernel, boot, connectivity, update, diagnostics, and platform services.

• Lead the evolution of a common embedded Linux platform strategy, including Yocto/OpenEmbedded-based development, BSP architecture, source control, CI/CD, and engineering workflows that improve reuse, quality, and delivery speed.

• Drive system bring-up across new hardware platforms, including bootloader configuration, BSP development, low-level debugging, and hardware-software integration.

• Lead the integration and optimization of hardware components, including USB, PCIe, I2C-connected peripherals, Ethernet interfaces, and radio/connectivity subsystems within the embedded software stack.

• Define and guide diagnostics, health monitoring, and fault management strategies that improve system reliability, serviceability, and operational visibility in critical automotive systems.

• Analyze and resolve complex low-level system issues spanning high-speed buses, platform boot flows, peripheral integration, and network connectivity.

• Drive platform readiness across development, manufacturing, and production, including flashing, provisioning, validation, and end-of-line support.

• Partner closely with hardware, DevOps, manufacturing, suppliers, and adjacent software teams to resolve system-level tradeoffs and ensure successful program execution.

• Author and review technical requirements, design documents, and architecture decisions to guide long-term platform direction.

• Mentor engineers across the organization, review code and designs, and raise the bar on technical rigor, maintainability, and platform reuse.

• Help define technical objectives and key results and drive continuous improvement in software stability, performance, scalability, and maintainability.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. Advanced degree preferred.

• 10+ years of experience in embedded Linux, firmware, BSP, or platform software development, with demonstrated Principal-level technical leadership across complex products.

• Deep expertise in embedded Linux platform development, including kernel and driver development, Yocto/OpenEmbedded-based build environments, BSP architecture, and board bring-up.

• Strong experience with bootloaders such as U-Boot, custom boot flows, firmware integration, and early platform initialization.

• Strong experience leading connected platform bring-up and integration across technologies such as Ethernet, BLE, Wi-Fi, time synchronization, and in-vehicle networking configuration.

• Deep knowledge of communication protocols such as UART, PCIe, I2C, SPI, CAN, MDIO, and Ethernet.

• Experience with embedded and real-time operating environments, including Linux and RTOS-based systems, and strong understanding of kernel internals, memory management, scheduling, file systems, and IPC mechanisms.

• Strong experience with firmware/software update systems, OTA architecture, diagnostics, health monitoring, and fault detection for embedded platforms.

• Experience supporting manufacturing and production integration, including hardware validation, firmware flashing, provisioning, and end-of-line testing.

• Proficiency with low-level debugging tools such as JTAG, GDB, ftrace, kdump, perf, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.

• Experience with ARM-based SoCs and hardware interaction at the register level.

• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to analyze complex system issues across software, hardware, manufacturing, and operational domains.

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to influence across teams and organizations, drive architectural alignment, and communicate effectively with both engineers and leadership.

• Proven ability to mentor engineers, review technical work, and establish engineering standards and best practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience defining and driving common Linux platform strategies across multiple products or hardware generations.

• Experience with OTA/update systems spanning internal and external components.

• Experience working across supplier and partner boundaries to deliver platform capabilities.

• Experience with manufacturing platform support and production readiness for embedded systems.

• Experience contributing to or leading within open-source embedded Linux communities such as Yocto Project, OpenEmbedded, or related ecosystems.

• Experience in automotive, robotics, consumer devices, cloud-connected edge systems, or other complex embedded products.

Company Vehicle: Upon successful completion of a motor vehicle report review, you will be eligible to participate in a company vehicle evaluation program, through which you will be assigned a General Motors vehicle to drive and evaluate. Note: program participants are required to purchase/lease a qualifying GM vehicle every four years unless one of a limited number of exceptions applies.

This job is not eligible for relocation benefits. Any relocation costs would be the responsibility of the selected candidate. 

GM DOES NOT PROVIDE IMMIGRATION-RELATED SPONSORSHIP FOR THIS ROLE. DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS ROLE IF YOU WILL NEED GM IMMIGRATION SPONSORSHIP (e.g., H-1B, TN, STEM OPT, etc.) NOW OR IN THE FUTURE

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