Design Release Engineer – Exterior Lighting

At General Motors, our product teams are redefining mobility. Through a human-centered design process, we create vehicles and experiences that are designed not just to be seen, but to be felt. We’re turning today’s impossible into tomorrow’s standard —from breakthrough hardware and battery systems to intuitive design, intelligent software, and next-generation safety and entertainment features.  

Every day, our products move millions of people as we aim to make driving safer, smarter, and more connected, shaping the future of transportation on a global scale.

The Role

The GM Exterior Lighting Team offers opportunities across a spectrum of engineering fields including mechanical, electrical, physics, and optics. This product design and engineering development position owns all exterior lamp design and initial feasibility activities – including definition of performance requirements, packaging integration to the vehicle, alternative design options to support theme development, high-fidelity math data creation, system integration of electronic functional requirements, and optical/tooling feasibility.

This role requires an experienced Design Release Engineer to support exterior lighting content for EV and ICE platforms, working with cross-functional Product Development Teams (PDTs) that include exterior lighting and integration with interfacing parts and assemblies during the vehicle development timeframe.

The ideal candidate is eager to deepen their technical expertise in exterior lighting, defining feature-level performance requirements and delivering robust, production-ready lamp designs. They possess strong NX skills, exemplary communication and project management capability, and enjoy taking on challenges and following through with high-quality solutions. Success requires close collaboration with peers in Creative Design (Styling), electrical and exteriors engineering, validation, purchasing, manufacturing, and quality.

What You’ll Do (Responsibilities)

• Work with cross-functional teams to develop design proposals and options, negotiating the balance of Studio theme vs. content and feasibility; including focused collaboration with the interfacing engineering teams throughout development.
• Generate lit and unlit exterior lighting system-level feature communication graphics, including animation and vehicle-level communication to support design and leadership reviews.
• Generate and execute performance requirements based on benchmarking, program priorities, and exterior lighting component packaging feasibility to support new vehicle programs.
• Lead math development and packaging integration to meet exterior lighting performance and regulatory requirements using NX / Teamcenter (Unigraphics).
• Organize and conduct benchmarking to support competitive design direction and inform feature content decisions.
• Support technical leadership for advanced component or technology development, including next-generation lit signatures, animations, and electronics/optics innovations.
• Make effective decisions with limited or evolving data, always putting the customer first in tradeoff discussions.
• Perform complex engineering evaluations and analyses, balancing business imperatives including cost, mass, complexity, manufacturability, and timing.
• Provide product development team leadership and program management for new exterior lighting subsystems, driving issue resolution and milestone achievement.
• Communicate information to and from internal partners (PDT, program teams, regular program meetings, peer reviews, gate reviews) and external customer organizations (suppliers and other stakeholders).
• Stay abreast of new technology, regulatory changes, and competitive products in exterior lighting and related domains.
• Assist/lead in creation of Statements of Requirements (SORs) and Statements of Work (SOWs) for exterior lighting components and systems.
• Create and support Interface Control Document (ICD) requirements for component and subsystem interfaces; assist/lead Product Development Team meetings to maintain alignment across functions.
• Provide technical contributions at peer reviews and drive continuous improvement in design practices, tools, and development processes.

Your Skills & Qualifications (Required)

• Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, or equivalent technical degree).
• Typically, 2+ years of engineering experience in exterior lighting or injection-molded plastic part design (or equivalent relevant experience).
• Proficiency with NX and Teamcenter/Unigraphics for math data creation, packaging, and release.
• Experience with vehicle integration and design tradeoffs (appearance, performance, cost, mass, complexity, manufacturability, and timing).
• Working knowledge of structured engineering tools and processes (e.g., SOR, ICD, DFMEA, DVP&R, GD&T, drawing/BOM creation).
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across Studio, engineering, validation, manufacturing, purchasing, suppliers, and quality.
• Demonstrated project management skills with the ability to lead or support multi-functional PDTs and drive issues to closure.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and make sound engineering decisions in ambiguous or fast-paced environments.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred)

• Knowledge of global exterior lighting regulations and exterior lighting regulatory installation criteria (e.g., ELRIC).
• Experience with global product design and working with global suppliers for exterior lighting components.
• Experience in creation of lit mechanizations, feature communication graphics, or day/night electrical architecture reviews for vehicle lighting.
• Familiarity with Abaqus, MATLAB/Simulink, and/or JAVA/Python for CAE, controls, or software-oriented lighting work.
• Prior experience executing exterior lighting programs from concept through production launch, including supplier coaching, validation, and launch support.
• Advanced degree in an engineering discipline (e.g., Master’s in Mechanical/Electrical/Automotive Engineering).