Senior Controls Engineer (Automation)

Job Description

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

We are seeking a Senior Controls Engineer with a focus on industrial automation to lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of automated manufacturing systems. In this role, you will provide technical leadership across multiple projects and production areas, guiding teams in the delivery of safe, reliable, and highly capable equipment.

This position is a strong fit for experienced controls engineers who have deep automation experience in manufacturing environments, even if they have not previously worked with our company or our specific standards. The emphasis is on demonstrated technical leadership, problem-solving, and ownership from concept through implementation.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the design, development, and commissioning of automation and controls solutions for new equipment, process changes, and major upgrades.

• Serve as a technical leader for troubleshooting and issue resolution on production equipment, driving structured root-cause analysis and sustainable corrective actions.

• Define controls architecture and standards for assigned projects or areas, including PLCs, HMIs, robots, drives, networks, and safety systems.

• Provide technical direction and mentoring to other engineers, technicians, and suppliers on controls design, programming, and commissioning best practices.

• Coordinate with cross-functional partners in engineering, operations, maintenance, and quality to align requirements, prioritize issues, and ensure successful project outcomes.

• Own and improve plant floor systems such as production monitoring, and/or alerting, data collection, material call, and related manufacturing information systems.

• Ensure that controls solutions support safety, quality, and productivity targets, including functional safety and cyber considerations where applicable.

• Lead the development, review, and maintenance of documentation for electrical/controls designs, programs, and system changes, ensuring clarity and long-term maintainability.

• Manage the controls scope for projects, including defining work packages, estimating effort, tracking progress, and managing changes, risks, and issues.

• Partner with external suppliers and integrators, providing clear specifications and technical oversight to ensure delivered systems meet functional and performance expectations.

Required Qualifications – Your Skills & Abilities 

• Experience across multiple manufacturing engineering and/or plant-based automation roles (typically 4+ years) with a track record of successful individual and team-based achievements in controls or automation.

• Strong engineering, critical thinking, and analytical skills with the ability to solve unusual and difficult technical problems in high-volume production environments.

• Effective communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence and align cross-functional partners and stakeholders.

• Working knowledge of plant floor systems, including production monitoring and control, andon or alert systems, upload/download and compare tools, throughput monitoring, and material call or dispatch systems.

• Prior work experience with tooling or automated manufacturing systems and solid knowledge of commonly used industrial controls hardware and software platforms (for example, PLC/HMI/robot/CNC platforms from major vendors).

• Understanding of manufacturing processes and part design interfaces, with experience applying PLC platforms, industrial robot programming, and CNC controls.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field, or equivalent relevant experience in industrial automation or controls.

• Proven project management skills, including planning, execution, stakeholder communication, and proactive risk/issue management for controls-related scope.

Preferred Qualifications – What Will Set You Apart 

• Strong understanding of high-volume Automotive & allied industry manufacturing processes in production shops and associated quality management systems.

• Proven experience leading new product or process launch activities, ensuring controls strategies are integrated with plant systems and aligned to launch deliverables and timing.

• Experience defining, developing and/or improving existing controls standards, templates, and best practices across multiple lines, plants, or projects.

• Demonstrated ability to coach and develop less-experienced engineers and technicians in automation and controls disciplines.

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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 onsite. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location on a full-time basis.

The selected candidate will be required to travel on a regular basis (25-50%) for this role.

This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.



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

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