Staff ML Systems Engineer

Job Description

Help teach our self‑driving vehicles how to see and understand the world!

The Data Labeling Engineering team designs, builds, and operates hybrid human/machine data labeling tools and pipelines that power autonomous vehicle machine learning models within General Motors' AV organization. We operate in the intersection of software engineering, data engineering, and AI/ML, defining the strategies, tooling, and quality controls that create reliable training data at scale. Our tools and platform are used by thousands of users and consumers.

We own a modern full‑stack architecture including TypeScript/React, Python, GraphQL, Golang, and ML model services, which powers data‑annotation pipelines and machine‑led training data solutions at foundation‑model scale. We partner closely across AI/ML engineers, Product Operations, Product Management, Data Science, and other ML Platform groups.

This role is ideal for an engineer looking for end-to-end ownership of meaningful pieces of the platform, growth in technical and strategic leadership, and direct impact across teams and systems that unblock the next generation of AV capabilities.

What You’ll Do

• Define the platform vision and roadmap
  Work with cross-team and cross-functional leads to understand current and future needs, translating their input into an aligned platform vision and an incremental development roadmap.
• Own projects end‑to‑end
  Take ownership of technical projects from problem framing through design, implementation, and rollout. Drive code reviews, design discussions, and technical decisions.
• Collaborate across the AV stack
  Work with partner teams (ML Engineering, Operations, Product, Data Science, other platform teams) to translate abstract requirements into concrete workflows, APIs, and UIs that hit quality, cost, and latency goals.
• Level up how ML teams work with data
  Develop automation and tooling that give ML engineers deep insight into labeling workflows and data quality (e.g., efficiency dashboards, auto‑QA, autolabel review tools), reducing iteration time from idea to trained model.
• Apply ML to labeling itself
  Collaborate with ML engineers to design and integrate ML‑driven data annotation (pre‑labeling, autolabeling, active learning loops), helping us move from human‑only to machine‑led labeling at scale.
• Build high‑impact labeling experiences
  Design, implement, and test scalable, high‑performance user experiences and services using modern full‑stack and/or frontend technologies. You’ll help the team ship features spanning multiple surface-areas that directly affect how quickly and accurately we can label data for new models and cities.
• Champion AI‑assisted engineering
  Use and advocate for modern AI‑powered development workflows (code assistants, automated documentation, test generation, etc.) to increase build-velocity while maintaining code and product quality.

Your Skills & Abilities

• Passionate about self‑driving/robotics technology and its potential to transform safety, mobility, and the human experience.
• Proven experience shipping and operating end‑to‑end products or features in production.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills; you can explain tradeoffs, influence peers, and work through ambiguity with cross‑functional partners.
• Driven to learn new technologies and deepen your expertise across frontend, backend, and data/ML‑adjacent systems.
• Empathetic to user challenges (from labelers to ML engineers to Ops) and excited to turn messy workflows into simple, intuitive tools.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience building robust distributed platforms and applications.
• Hands-on experience leveraging AI tools (agentic workflows, knowledge acquisition, documentation generation, operational triage, etc) to accelerate understanding, implementation, debugging, and delivery of new capabilities.
• Proficiency in writing and reviewing high‑quality, scalable, and performant full-stack code using technologies and languages like Python, TypeScript, Go, React, SQL, Redux, gRPC, GraphQL, WebGL, etc.
• Solid understanding of scalable software system design including data modeling and API/interface design.
• Strong fundamentals in object‑oriented design and design patterns, data structures, algorithms, and engineering best practices (TDD, code quality, observability, CI/CD).

Bonus Points

• A track record of close collaboration with customers, product managers, designers, and/or user experience researchers.
• Experience with computer vision, machine learning, or data‑centric AI projects — especially where data annotation, data quality, or autolabeling loops were central to the work.
• Familiarity with data labeling/annotation platforms or tools used by large labeling workforces (e.g., annotation UIs, workflow engines, quality systems).
• Experience with A/B testing and telemetry/observability systems to measure impact and reliability.
• Experience developing data‑intensive or visualization‑heavy applications.

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 $171,700 to $303,900. 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.

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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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