Job Description
General Motors is seeking a Senior Structural Engineer serves as GM’s owner-side engineering subject matter expert for major commercial, industrial, manufacturing, and workplace capital projects. The role provides technical leadership from front-end planning through design, procurement, construction, commissioning, occupancy, and facility operations when structural matters arise.
The Senior Structural Engineer establishes structural requirements and review strategies, interprets applicable codes and GM standards, evaluates designs and technical risks, and supports project teams across multiple delivery models. The role helps teams make safe, constructible, cost-effective, resilient, and sustainable decisions while coordinating with project leaders, planners, architects and engineers, contractors, operations, safety, procurement, and other stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership and Governance
- Serve as the GM structural subject matter expert for ICC planning, design, construction, and facility operations, providing technical leadership, recommendations, expectations, and decision support for major capital projects.
- Provide independent owner-side technical challenge to proposed designs, deviations, substitutions, recommendations, and execution approaches to confirm technical basis, safety, code compliance, constructability, durability, risk, and business alignment.
- Triage structural support requests and establish risk-based review plans, deliverable expectations, hold points, reviewer responsibilities, and decision records based on safety, risk, project impact, urgency, and business need.
- Review and interpret structural calculations, drawings, specifications, models, studies, construction documents, and applicable codes to identify gaps, assumptions, quality concerns, constructability issues, and required decisions.
Project Planning and Design Support
- Engage early in planning studies, preliminary engineering, project initiation, and kickoff to identify structural scope, risks, constraints, interfaces, code considerations, constructability issues, and budget or schedule implications.
- Support project leaders and planners with structural studies, conceptual alternatives, class-level estimates, schedules, business cases, VDP activities, and Appropriation Requests.
- Lead or support concept reviews and buy-offs covering design intent, structural systems, load criteria, load paths, foundations, framing, existing-building modifications, equipment interfaces, and other critical structural matters.
- Support value analysis, value engineering, cost-benefit analysis, design-to-budget decisions, and scope alternatives by evaluating structural implications, lifecycle considerations, risk, resiliency, flexibility, and constructability.
Standards, Specifications, and Technical Documentation
- Prepare, edit, interpret, and maintain technically rigorous Statements of Requirements and Requests for Proposals, including structural scope, performance criteria, deliverables, safety expectations, testing and inspection requirements, and applicable commercial requirements.
- Develop, maintain, and communicate structural design requirements, performance criteria, deliverable expectations, technical assumptions, discipline checklists, specifications, standard details, design guides, templates, and governance documents.
- Support stewardship of the General Motors Technical Documents Library and promote consistent application of approved structural standards across projects and sites.
- Translate project history, benchmarking, field experience, recurring technical issues, industry practices, emerging technologies, materials, and delivery methods into improvements to standards, scope development, design reviews, procurement requirements, and construction execution.
Construction and Existing-Facility Support
- Provide risk-based construction-phase structural support for major issues, failures, deviations, substitutions, failed tests or inspections, field orders, bulletins, design change requests, technical clarifications, and other matters requiring structural judgment.
- Support pre-installation meetings, site visits, testing and inspection planning, critical submittal reviews, commissioning, start-up, and buyoff activities; coordinate structural interfaces with process and equipment teams, field engineering, commissioning, safety, environmental, permitting, operations, and other stakeholders.
- Provide structural technical input for operating-facility issues, including load information, modifications, damage, condition assessments, and recommended next steps; plan and support field investigations and targeted testing to evaluate existing conditions and reduce uncertainty.
- Evaluate repair, replacement, monitoring, and continued-use alternatives based on safety, risk, durability, lifecycle cost, constructability, operational impact, and future maintenance.
Collaboration, Safety, and Capability Building
- Collaborate with engineering and functional-discipline SMEs, project leadership, planners, operations, contractors, procurement, safety partners, and other stakeholders to resolve interfaces and competing priorities.
- Communicate structural issues, risks, assumptions, alternatives, recommendations, and decision impacts clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences, including senior leadership and external partners.
- Support safety partners and project teams with structural loading considerations, anchorage conditions, fall-hazard risk assessments, and appropriate fall-protection-system application in accordance with applicable GM, OSHA, jurisdiction-specific, and industry requirements.
- Promote effective use of BIM/VDC workflows, document management, technical decision records, lessons-learned tracking, and other approved information systems; develop reusable guidance, examples, decision aids, checklists, and lessons learned.
- Mentor Project Managers, Design Managers, planners, project team members, stakeholders, end users, and less-experienced engineers on structural requirements, risk management, technical reviews, and effective project support.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, structural engineering, architectural engineering, or a related field.
- Minimum of seven years of progressive experience in structural engineering, owner-side capital project delivery, architecture/engineering, construction engineering, or a closely related technical field supporting major commercial, industrial, manufacturing, or comparable complex capital projects.
- Active Professional Engineer (P.E.) license or ability to obtain an applicable license within 12 months of appointment.
- Demonstrated technical depth in structural systems, building-code application, load paths, foundations, framing, existing-building modifications, constructability, construction delivery, design review, and risk-based technical decision-making.
- Experience reviewing structural drawings, specifications, calculations, models, construction documents, and applicable building codes and standards to identify gaps, assumptions, risks, quality concerns, constructability issues, and required decisions.
- Experience supporting front-end planning, structural design development, construction-phase technical support, existing-facility evaluation, facility modifications, or asset-sustainment activities.
- Ability to develop, interpret, maintain, and improve technical standards, specifications, Statements of Requirements, Requests for Proposals, templates, checklists, and governance documents.
- Experience coordinating with architects, engineers, contractors, Project Managers, Design Managers, planners, safety partners, operations teams, procurement, and other cross-functional stakeholders.
- Strong analytical, organizational, written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate technical issues, risks, alternatives, recommendations, and decision impacts clearly.
- Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, influence cross-functional teams, and make effective decisions with incomplete information.
- Demonstrated commitment to safety, quality, sustainability, regulatory compliance, and General Motors policies and procedures.
- Strong computer skills, including proficiency with common office productivity tools, document control, submittal and review tracking, technical decision records, structural design, BIM/VDC, construction-management, or design-review applications.
- Willingness and ability to travel within North America, up to approximately 25% as required; passport required.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s degree in structural engineering, civil engineering, architectural engineering, construction management, business, or a related field.
- Experience supporting automotive, manufacturing, logistics, research, data-center, pre-engineered, utility-support, or other industrial facilities.
- Experience with existing-building assessments, root-cause analysis, foundations, structural framing, equipment and process loads, structural reinforcing, specialty foundations, facility modifications, and structural repair or replacement strategies.
- Practical knowledge of geotechnical considerations affecting structural design, including subsurface conditions, bearing capacity, settlement, lateral earth pressures, groundwater, earthwork, foundations, and interpretation of geotechnical recommendations.
- Experience supporting front-end planning, structural studies, VDP activities, Appropriation Requests, and complex capital delivery strategies, including design-build, design-bid-build, integrated project delivery, construction management, or comparable delivery methods.
- Experience coordinating third-party testing, inspections, commissioning requirements, pre-installation meetings, technical submittals, field engineering, construction issue resolution, BIM/VDC execution, model coordination, and structured technical records.
- Experience applying value engineering, lifecycle cost analysis, resilience, durability, low-carbon materials, adaptive reuse, or other sustainable structural practices.
- Multi-jurisdictional licensure, registration, reciprocity, or experience supporting work across multiple states, provinces, or authorities having jurisdiction.
- Spanish-language proficiency sufficient to communicate with project teams, contractors, plant personnel, and stakeholders in Spanish-speaking operations.
Location: Hybrid. This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to the - Global HQ Warren MI three times per week, at minimum [or other frequency dictated by the business]
Relocation: This role is NOT eligible for relocation benefits.
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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