Sr. System Engineer - GM Defense IT

Sr. System Engineer

GM Defense is driving the future of military mobility by leveraging the best-in-class capabilities of General Motors for unmatched innovation, proven performance and breakthrough life-cycle economics. We deliver reliable, affordable, and innovative products across a full spectrum of capabilities – integrated vehicles, power and propulsion, autonomy, mobility, and security.

GM Defense IT is seeking a Sr. System Engineer to support critical GM Defense work by leading and executing systems engineering activities across secure and regulated environments. This role will help establish structure, repeatability, and operational discipline across the GM Defense IT landscape, while supporting project delivery, operational health, customer support, compliance, and issue resolution in collaboration with enterprise architecture, security, and cross-functional IT teams. System Engineers are responsible for partitioning and allocating product, feature and system functionality to implementation teams. Safety, reliability, and regulatory compliance are factors considered in system design with the goal of optimizing performance, design, testability, and deployability. System engineers identify use cases, define functional technical requirements, enable robust implementation designs, and ensure built-in quality with test definition and traceability.

This role should operate as a fully qualified and experienced individual contributor with broad knowledge of the function and related areas, strong independent judgment on significant matters, and the ability to work independently with minimal guidance. The role is expected to break broad challenges into implementable initiatives, solve diverse non-standard problems, drive cross-team delivery, and serve as a resource and mentor to less experienced colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Work across numerous project teams, often as the primary systems engineering resource, to develop requirements, coordinate with partner support teams, execute project tasks, deliver solutions, and provide lifecycle support.
• Partner with GM IT enterprise architecture to improve and support applications, tools, and technical solutions that streamline IT processes while conforming to cybersecurity and compliance controls.
• Partner with GM IT security leadership, including the ISSM, to support cleared and controlled systems and help maintain secure, compliant environments.
• Manage and improve the operational health of information systems, including patching, upgrades, refreshes, maintenance, troubleshooting, and corrective actions in support of continuing operations.
• Continuously monitor, validate, and document implemented security controls, and support audit activities through analytical review, reporting, and compliance-focused process discipline.
• Develop and maintain self-help tools, user guides, install guides, and knowledge articles that improve customer interactions and strengthen repeatable support processes.
• Serve as a day-to-day technical point of contact for customers and internal IT teams, helping organize workstreams, resolve issues, and support project and operational needs.
• Develop and operate tools and documented processes that help manage the secure and operational health of the environment.
• Host triage sessions and coordinate cross-functional workstreams to troubleshoot issues, identify root causes, and drive timely resolution of incidents and systemic problems.
• Identify opportunities to improve internal processes, services, and structures, and translate broad challenges into practical, implementable solutions that support GM Defense priorities.
• Act as a resource and mentor for less experienced team members and help drive strong execution across cross-functional teams.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 7+ yrs of experience delivering IT systems in a professional or corporate environment.
• Experience working independently on significant technical matters with the ability to develop solutions, manage competing priorities, and drive work across teams with minimal guidance.
• Experience gathering requirements, supporting solution design, and working with multiple technical teams to deliver robust systems that meet functionality, stability, performance, and resiliency expectations.
• Experience in one or more of the following areas: systems engineering, infrastructure support, application support, operational health management, server engineering, security operations, or technical troubleshooting.
• Experience developing applications, AI agents, automation, tooling, or technical solutions that improve supportability and operational efficiency.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to work across customers, project teams, support teams, architects, and security partners.
• Willingness to sign non-disclosure agreements where required.
• Travel required. Most travel will be driving between GM locations within the southeast MI area - potential 50-60%. Travel outside of the southeast MI – potential 10-15%.
• Ability to pass vetting or secure U.S. government clearance as required to support GM Defense work.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience supporting government, defense, aerospace, or other regulated environments.
• Understanding of government data classifications and handling requirements, including concepts such as CUI, ITAR, EAR, export controls, and classified program sensitivities.
• Knowledge of government cybersecurity and control frameworks such as CMMC, DFARS, NIST SP 800-171, or NIST 800-53.
• Experience supporting cleared systems or other highly controlled environments with security, compliance, or regulatory constraints.
• Experience with server engineering activities such as installation, patching, upgrades, and refreshes.
• Experience in a defined architecture or technology domain such as Java,.NET, infrastructure platforms, or related enterprise technologies.

The strongest candidates will bring a hands-on systems engineering background, strong operational discipline, and the ability to bring structure to complex day-to-day challenges. They should be effective problem solvers who can identify systemic issues, support secure and compliant operations, work effectively across multiple teams, and deliver practical solutions that improve reliability, supportability, and business outcomes for GM Defense.

GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. Do not apply for this role if you will need GM immigration sponsorship now or in the future. This includes direct company sponsorship, entry of GM as the immigration employer of record on a government form, and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (e.g., H1-B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc).

This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week {or other frequency dictated by their manager}. This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.