Autonomous Vehicle Test Engineer

About this role

Job Description Position summary • GM Level: 6A

• Proposed job-family alignment: Test and Validation Engineering

• Primary work location: GM Desert Proving Ground, Yuma, Arizona

• Travel: Approximately 10% as needed for training, team alignment, vehicle support, or other GM testing activities

• Career track: Individual contributor

General Motors is developing advanced driving-assistance and autonomous-vehicle capabilities that require safe, repeatable, and scalable validation. The AV Test Engineer will be the onsite technical lead for a focused closed-course testing operation at GM’s Desert Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona.

This role will own day-to-day technical execution for a small assigned fleet of approximately two to three autonomous test vehicles. The engineer will plan and execute closed-course regression, feature, behavior, calibration, and other structured testing; coordinate limited operations personnel supporting the work; and ensure the vehicles, test setup, track activities, data, and results are ready to support engineering and program decisions.

Yuma is intentionally a lean operating environment. There will not be dedicated technicians or additional engineers permanently onsite to provide routine support. The successful candidate must be a self-starter who can operate independently, recognize and resolve common vehicle and AV-system issues, and know when to stop testing or escalate to remote engineering, Service Operations, Fleet Reliability Engineering, Vehicle Integration, or other partners. The role requires comfort moving between test planning, driving and observing closed-course scenarios, vehicle health checks, troubleshooting, data handling, and clear technical communication.

The position is especially important during the winter testing season, when Yuma provides a weather-resilient location to maintain closed-course testing capacity when conditions or schedule constraints limit testing elsewhere. The engineer will help make the local fleet and facility a dependable, repeatable testing capability rather than a temporary campaign location.

What you’ll do Lead onsite closed-course testing • Serve as the onsite technical lead for all assigned AV closed-course testing activities at Yuma, translating approved test requests and engineering objectives into executable plans, procedures, schedules, and resource requirements.

• Plan and execute repeatable software regression, feature and behavior validation, structured scenario, calibration, fault-response, and targeted data-collection tests.

• Coordinate daily test sequencing, track reservations, vehicle assignments, operating windows, safety reviews, and test readiness with remote AV Test Engineering and cross-functional stakeholders.

• Direct and brief limited operations personnel supporting test execution, including task assignments, vehicle preparation, track setup, lead-vehicle or target support, run sequencing, communications, and post-run closeout.

• Provide clear technical direction during test execution while maintaining the distinction between engineering ownership and operations execution responsibilities.

• Make timely onsite decisions about whether a test is ready to proceed, should be modified, should be repeated, or must be stopped and escalated based on vehicle condition, system behavior, track conditions, weather, data quality, or safety risk.

• Support extended or non-standard testing schedules when required by release timing, track availability, seasonal priorities, or campaign needs, consistent with site and safety requirements.

Own the assigned Yuma test fleet • Act as the primary technical owner for approximately two to three assigned AV test vehicles, maintaining awareness of their configuration, software and calibration state, physical condition, instrumentation, data-recording readiness, and current availability.

• Perform or coordinate daily vehicle checkouts, pre-drive readiness checks, post-drive inspections, charging or fueling coordination, sensor and camera cleanliness checks, hard-drive or data-media handling, and other activities required to keep vehicles test-ready.

• Manage vehicle configuration and test preparation activities, including approved software or branch deployments, calibration updates, route or map selection, logging configuration, test tools, and required test assets.

• Maintain accurate vehicle status, mileage or test-hour records, configuration information, test history, open issues, and return-to-service decisions for the local fleet.

• Identify vehicle downtime risks early and develop practical containment, recovery, and escalation plans to protect testing availability.

• Coordinate parts, materials, shipping, facility resources, charging support, and remote technical assistance when onsite needs exceed available capability.

• Build and maintain a winter-readiness plan for the Yuma fleet, including vehicle availability, spare equipment, data-storage capacity, charging or fueling needs, test assets, operating procedures, and contingency plans.

Troubleshoot vehicle and AV-system issues • Perform first-line technical triage for issues involving the AV software stack, vehicle compute, sensors, localization, calibration, connectivity, data recording, host-vehicle systems, vehicle networks, power or charging, and test infrastructure.

• Use vehicle symptoms, operator observations, system status, logs, drive data, diagnostic tools, and repeatable experiments to isolate likely causes and determine the next action.

• Reproduce issues when safe and practical, capture accurate timelines and evidence, and create actionable issue reports for remote engineering or support teams.

• Distinguish between issues that can be safely contained or corrected onsite and issues requiring vehicle removal from service, engineering review, formal change control, or additional safety assessment.

• Partner with Troubleforce, Service Operations, Fleet Reliability Engineering, V

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