Engineering Group Manager – Material Automation Center of Excellence (CoE)

Job Description

Job Description:

The Engineering Group Manager – Material Automation Center of Excellence (CoE) is responsible for building and leading the centralized knowledge, standards, and continuous improvement function for Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) and Automated Forklift (AFT) deployments across General Motors' manufacturing plants.

General Motors is at the forefront of one of the most exciting initiatives in automotive manufacturing — deploying AMRs and AFTs at scale across its global plant network. This effort spans both GM-developed technology and strategic vendor solutions, and the CoE sits at the heart of it — ensuring every deployment is faster, smarter, and more reliable than the last.

This is a high impact leadership role for someone who is deeply technical, highly organized, and innovative. You will leverage AI and modern tooling to develop solutions that accelerate team performance, build repeatable processes, and drive data-informed decision-making across the material automation portfolio. You will partner across GM's engineering centers to gather best practices, stay current with the technology roadmap, and engage with supporting teams to unlock new capabilities and execute development projects. When critical deployments need hands-on support, you will also serve as a tiger team lead — deploying your expertise and your team directly into the field to solve the biggest challenges.

Travel: ~20%

Key Responsibilities

Lessons Learned & Continuous Improvement

• Gather, analyze, and share lessons learned from every deployment to prevent repeat problems and accelerate future execution.
• Hold after-action reviews; clean up findings and publish actionable fixes.
• Maintain notes, updated checklists, and communicate insights to the Product team.
• Track and drive down repeat issues; measure the number of lessons learned implemented.

Product & Vendor Partnership

• Partner with Autonomous Robotics Center (ARC) Product teams and suppliers to ensure product strategy address real field needs and improve system reliability.
• Prioritize field issues; write clear change requests; verify fixes through structured validation.
• Manage backlogs, change requests, and verification reports to drive faster closure of high-impact issues and reduce AMR-side failures.

Performance Data & Analytics

• Compile data from deployments and publish dashboards to enable data-driven decision-making.
• Own deployment summaries and key metrics including deployment time and commissioning time.
• Identify trends and improvement opportunities through rigorous data analysis.

Playbook, Standards & Training

• Create and maintain a repeatable deployment process that builds team self-sufficiency across the organization.
• Own standards, templates, and version control, including the Deployment Playbook, Plant Readiness Checklist, Pugh Matrix Template, quick guides, and training materials. Develop AI tools to remove repetitive tasks.
• Develop job aids and training courses that raise team skill levels and drive faster deployment times.

Technology Roadmap & Innovation

• Stay current with the material automation technology roadmap and engage with supporting teams to develop technology unlocks.
• Execute development projects that advance AMR/AFT capability and deployment efficiency.
• Leverage AI and software tools to build solutions that help teams work faster and smarter.
• Partner with other GM automation teams to gather and apply best practices.

Tiger Team & Critical Project Support

• Serve as a rapid-response tiger team to support critical project execution when deployments face high-risk challenges.
• Deploy directly into the field with your team to troubleshoot, stabilize, and drive projects to completion.

What Success Looks Like (12 Months)

• Establish the CoE as the authoritative source for deployment standards, lessons learned, and best practices across all material automation projects.
• Deliver a live performance dashboard that drives data-informed decisions and provides executive-level visibility into deployment health.
• Measurably reduce repeat issues and deployment/commissioning cycle times through institutionalized lessons learned and improved scoping accuracy.
• Build and publish a comprehensive Deployment Playbook and training curriculum that elevates team capability and enables faster, more predictable execution.
• Develop AI-enabled tools and processes that give deployment teams a tangible productivity advantage.

GM does not provide immigration-related spo