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About This Role
Job Description
This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to GM Warren Global Technical Center or Austin Technical Center three times per week, at minimum \[or other frequency dictated by the business if more than 3 days].
The Role
This role is for a senior individual contributor in Data Engineering who can independently lead complex technical work, apply strong professional judgment, improve processes and delivery patterns, and move quickly from ideas to production solutions. At this level, the individual is expected to operate with minimal guidance, resolve non\-standard problems using advanced analytical thinking, take ownership of outcomes, and serve as a technical resource for less experienced team members.
The role is anchored in data engineering with a strong focus on automation and Agentic AI. The engineer will build reliable data platforms and use technologies such as Cursor, large language models, Vector Search, Databricks agents, RAG, and similar tools to accelerate engineering delivery and enable intelligent data experiences. The engineer will partner with data scientists and ML engineers as needed to support experimentation and productionize AI solutions, while data engineering and platform delivery remain the primary focus.
What You’ll Do
- Design, build, and productionize reliable, scalable, and secure data pipelines and data products in Azure Databricks that support AI, analytics, and operational use cases.
- Transform raw data from multiple source systems into trusted, well\-structured data products for analytics, model development, LLM applications, Vector Search, and AI agents.
- Build automation and reusable engineering workflows using tools such as Cursor, Claude, LLMs, Databricks agents, and related technologies to improve development speed, testing, documentation, troubleshooting, and operational efficiency.
- Design and enable governed data, retrieval, and semantic patterns for Vector Search, RAG, Databricks agents, Genie, Glean, and other AI\-enabled applications.
- Build and optimize batch and streaming pipelines, including feature\-ready, training, inference, and model\-scoring data workflows, in partnership with data science teams when needed.
- Establish practical engineering patterns for CI/CD, automated testing, data quality, lineage, observability, security, cost management, and production support.
- Solve complex data engineering, performance, reliability, and data\-quality problems with strong ownership, urgency, and sound technical judgment.
- Contribute to technical direction, reusable standards, and delivery practices across teams; influence adoption through working examples and measurable outcomes.
- Mentor team members through technical guidance, design reviews, knowledge sharing, and strong engineering practices.
Your Skills \& Abilities (Required Qualifications)
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
- 5\+ years of relevant professional experience, or equivalent knowledge and experience.
- Strong experience in data engineering, including pipeline development, data modeling, data integration, distributed processing, and production support for enterprise data platforms.
- Experience using Python or Scala, SQL, Apache Spark, and modern cloud data platforms; Azure is preferred, and AWS or GCP experience is also considered.
- Experience designing, building, and optimizing scalable batch and streaming data pipelines using Databricks, Delta Lake, and medallion or comparable lakehouse architecture.
- Hands\-on experience using AI\-assisted development or automation tools such as Cursor, Claude, GitHub Copilot, or comparable platforms to improve engineering productivity and delivery.
- Hands\-on experience with LLMs, Vector Search, RAG, Databricks agents, or comparable technologies used to build or enable production AI solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently, move quickly through ambiguity, influence technical decisions, and deliver measurable improvements in quality, reliability, efficiency, or business value.
What Can Give You a Competitive Advantage (Preferred Qualifications)
- Experience building or operating Databricks agents, Vector Search solutions, LLM applications, RAG workflows, Genie spaces, Glean integrations, or similar Agentic AI platforms.
- Experience applying evaluation, monitoring, access controls, guardrails, and governance to AI or agent\-enabled solutions.
- Experience partnering with data scientists or ML engineers on feature engineering, experimentation, model development, model serving, or productionization of AI solutions.
- Experience with infrastructure as code, APIs, data contracts, platform automation, or reusable engineering libraries and templates.
- Experience in manufacturing, supply chain, automotive, planning, or another complex operational domain.
- Demonstrated mentoring, technical leadership, and process improvement impact consistent with a Level 7 senior individual contributor role.
- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, or related field.
This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.
Compensation:
- The expected base compensation for this role is: $138,700 \- $173,750\. Actual base compensation within the identified 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.
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., H\-1B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, J\-1, etc.)
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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 .
Accommodations
General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1\-800\-865\-7580\. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.
Salary Context
This $138K-$173K range is above the median for Data Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $153K across 35 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
Data Engineers build the pipelines that feed AI models. They design ETL workflows, manage data lakes, and ensure training and inference data is clean, timely, and accessible. Without good data engineering, AI projects fail. It's that simple.
The AI era has expanded the data engineer's scope far beyond batch ETL jobs. You're building real-time embedding pipelines for RAG systems, managing vector databases, ensuring training data quality at scale, and building the infrastructure that lets ML teams iterate on data as fast as they iterate on models. Data quality is the biggest predictor of model quality, and you're the person responsible for it.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, Data Engineer positions make up 1% of the market. At General Motors (GM), this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: debugging a data pipeline that's producing stale embeddings for the RAG system, optimizing a Spark job that processes training data, building a data quality monitoring dashboard, meeting with the ML team to understand their next data requirements, and writing dbt models that transform raw event data into ML-ready features. The work is deeply technical and high-impact.
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
Skills Required
SQL, Python, and distributed systems (Spark, Airflow, dbt) are core. Cloud data platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift) are increasingly standard. Many AI-focused roles also want familiarity with vector databases and embedding pipelines. Understanding data modeling, pipeline orchestration, and data quality frameworks covers the essentials.
AI-specific data engineering skills include: building feature stores, managing training data versioning, implementing data lineage tracking, and building real-time embedding pipelines. Experience with streaming systems (Kafka, Flink) is valuable for real-time AI applications. Understanding ML data requirements (balanced datasets, data augmentation, evaluation set construction) makes you much more effective working with ML teams.
Strong postings specify the data stack, mention ML pipeline work, and describe the scale of data you'll be working with. Look for companies that understand the connection between data quality and model quality. Avoid roles that conflate data engineering with data analysis.
Compensation Benchmarks
Data Engineer roles pay a median of $185,000 based on 83 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($156K) sits 16% below the category median. Disclosed range: $138K to $173K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
General Motors (GM) AI Hiring
General Motors (GM) has 13 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Data Engineer, AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Product Manager. Positions span Warren, MI, US, Austin, TX, US, Sunnyvale, CA, US. Compensation range: $173K - $335K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (635 positions) offer remote work, while 3,657 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,650 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (1,335 roles, $265,000 median); Los Angeles (708 roles, $214,112 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Data Engineer roles include Backend Engineer, Database Administrator, Analytics Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Data Engineer, ML Engineer, Data Platform Lead.
Master SQL and Python first. Then learn a distributed processing framework (Spark or its modern alternatives) and a pipeline orchestrator (Airflow, Dagster, Prefect). Build a portfolio project that demonstrates end-to-end pipeline construction: ingest, transform, validate, serve. If you want to specialize in AI data engineering, add vector databases and embedding pipelines to your skill set.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect SQL deep-dives (query optimization, partitioning strategies, data modeling), Python coding focused on data pipeline patterns, and system design questions about building scalable ETL workflows. Companies with ML teams will ask about feature stores, embedding pipelines, and training data management. Be ready to discuss data quality monitoring, pipeline orchestration, and how you'd handle schema evolution in a production data lake.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings specify the data stack, mention ML pipeline work, and describe the scale of data you'll be working with. Look for companies that understand the connection between data quality and model quality. Avoid roles that conflate data engineering with data analysis.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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