Autonomous Vehicle Safety Assurance Technical Program Manager

The Role

The Safety Assurance for Effective Autonomous Driving Software (SAFE-ADS) department is part of GM’s Global Product Safety, System, and Certification (GPSSC) organization. SAFE-ADS brings together technical and operational expertise to help ensure the safe development, testing, launch, and continuous improvement of automated driving systems (ADS). 

GM is seeking an  Autonomous Vehicle Safety Assurance Technical Program Manager  to lead integrated execution across the SAFE-ADS operating plan.

This staff individual contributor will bring structure, momentum, and transparency to technically complex workstreams spanning safety risk management, operational safety, human factors, software validation, safety metrics, rules-of-the-road compliance, counterfactual simulation, and related system-safety interfaces. 

The successful candidate will connect strategy to delivery by translating operating-plan objectives into actionable roadmaps, aligning cross-functional teams to milestones and measurable outcomes, managing technical dependencies and risks, and driving decisions to closure across engineering, validation, data, operations, legal, public policy, and product organizations. 

This role is ideal for an experienced technical program leader who can operate at both the systems level and in execution details, communicate effectively with technical and executive audiences, and improve the processes and tools used to deliver safety-critical software and assurance programs. 

What You’ll Do 

Program Execution 

• Own the integrated execution model for SAFE-ADS operating-plan initiatives, including objectives, milestones, dependencies, resources, risks, decisions, and deliverables. 

• Translate product requirements, program milestones, and operating-plan commitments into clear workstream charters, roadmaps, delivery plans, and ownership models. 

• Coordinate planning-cycle updates and ensure changes to scope, priorities, dependencies, and capacity are reflected across relevant plans. 

• Establish governance, status reporting, action tracking, decision logs, escalation paths, and program reviews that keep execution visible and predictable. 

• Drive risk mitigation and recovery plans, escalating technical, schedule, resource, and dependency issues with decision-ready recommendations. 

• Partner with engineering, operations, quality, Legal, and GPSSC stakeholders on incident response, investigations, corrective actions, retrospectives, and continuous improvement. 

• Improve workflows, dashboards, automations, and data quality across Jira, Jira Align, Confluence,  SharePoint, requirements tools, and related systems. 

Safety Assurance 

• Manage dependencies among human-factors studies, operational data, safety requirements, validation criteria, readiness assessments, and program milestones. 

• Lead cross-functional execution for aggregate safety metrics and rules-of-the-road initiatives, including metric definitions, data quality, benchmarking, targets, validation, dashboards, and monitoring. 

• Coordinate interfaces with functional safety, SOTIF, ADAS and AV system safety, architecture, sensing and integration, software validation, simulation, data engineering, platform, and vehicle-integration teams. 

• Ensure requirements, assumptions, design changes, validation activities, and readiness decisions are visible across workstreams and linked to program outcomes. 

• Translate technical trade-offs and impact assessments into clear program decisions, actions, risks, and leadership communications. 

• Coordinate the supporting work needed to keep assurance deliverables, evidence plans, assessments, and readiness decisions aligned with program milestones. 

• Facilitate alignment among safety objectives, claims, sufficiency criteria, requirements, test plans, evidence owners, assessment activities, and documented decisions. 

• Maintain traceability across requirements, work items, tests, metrics, evidence, risks, changes, and approvals using appropriate systems and tools. 

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, systems engineering, robotics, safety engineering, mathematics, or a related technical field. 

• 7+ years of relevant experience leading complex technical programs in autonomous vehicles, ADAS, software-intensive systems, systems engineering, product safety, safety assurance, or another safety-critical domain. 

• At least 3 years of experience in technical program management, engineering program management, software delivery, systems engineering leadership, or an equivalent role with responsibility for execution across multiple technical teams. 

• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional programs with multiple workstreams, stakeholders, dependencies, and enterprise-level visibility. 

• Strong program management capabilities, including integrated planning, roadmap and milestone management, dependency tracking, risk and issue management, governance, change control, resource planning, and executive communication. 

• Experience translating ambiguous technical objectives into structured execution plans, measurable outcomes, clear ownership, and decision-ready reporting. 

• Experience working with software development lifecycles, software validation, test and verification activities, release planning, CI/CD or equivalent engineering workflows, and production-readiness practices. 

• Working knowledge of requirements management, end-to-end traceability, configuration management, impact analysis, evidence management, and assessment processes. 

• Hands-on experience with Jira and familiarity with Jira Align, Confluence, SharePoint, Smartsheet, or comparable program-management and collaboration tools. 

• Experience using or administering requirements and traceability tools such as IBM DOORS Next Generation (DNG), Jama Connect, or equivalent systems. 

• Familiarity with metrics, dashboards, data-quality practices, and reporting workflows used to measure program health and technical readiness. 

• Ability to understand and connect technical work across software, AI/ML, systems engineering, validation, simulation, human factors, operations, and product safety. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor information for technical, operational, and executive audiences. 

• Ability to influence without authority, build alignment across functions, work through ambiguity, and drive action to closure. 

• Passion for autonomous vehicle technology and safe deployment of advanced driving capabilities. 

• Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP),  Scrum, or another recognized program/project management certification. 

• Experience with Jira Align portfolio planning. 

• Experience with IBM DOORS Next Generation, Jama Connect, requirements databases, test-management systems, or safety-case and evidence-management platforms. 

• Experience with autonomous vehicle or ADAS safety assurance, safety management systems, safety issue management, operational safety, human factors, or product launch readiness. 

• Familiarity with functional safety, SOTIF, AI/ML safety, rules-of-the-road compliance, safety performance metrics, or safety-critical software development. 

• Familiarity with Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) or another structured argumentation framework. 

• Experience with Agile at scale, program increments, release trains, phase-gate development, or hybrid delivery models. 

• Technical fluency with data analysis, SQL, Python, cloud-based data pipelines, CI/CD, or software test automation. 

• Experience working with independent assessors, standards bodies, regulators, industry consortia, or external technical partners. 

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 the California Bay Area.

• The salary range for this role is $160,200 to $290,700. 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.

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.

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