Dive Brief:
- General Motors plans to fill 3,000 design, engineering and IT positions through Q1 2021 to meet the demands of its product development and software as a service strategies, the company announced Monday.
- GM will offer "more remote opportunities than ever before" amid the talent-seeking push, the company said. Among the positions the company will seek to fill are electrical system engineers, infotainment software engineers and developers for Java, Android and iOS.
- The inbound tech talent will help GM further develop "the software we need to lead in [electric vehicles], enhance the customer experience and become a software expertise-driven workforce" GM President Mark Reuss said in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
The hiring move speaks to the significant role software plays in the automaker's business strategy.
As the digital component of cars further expands, automakers are now forced to face off with big tech employers — and other industries such as retail and financial services — in the fight to attract engineers.
The push toward autonomous and electric vehicles drives part of the demand for talent, but operations have become more digitized across the board at the automaker.
GM dealers now leverage in-house software to order the vehicle build configurations that have the highest demand, according to Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of GM, speaking Thursday during the company's earnings call.
In the third quarter, GM beat analyst expectations and saw its income reach $4 billion, up 74% year over year. As it seeks to stay competitive in the face of disruption in the consumer market, the company is looking for talent that can help it sustain its focus on software inside the car.
"We do view the vehicle as a digital platform," said Barra. "Over the last five years or so, we have in-sourced virtually all of the software inside. That gives us the opportunity to have much better control, much better integration and speed to put new offerings."
