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Former GM engineer Jim Federico lands at Harley-Davidson

Former leading engineer at General Motors Jim Federico certainly didn't take long to find a new job. After recently announcing his retirement from GM, he is moving to Harley-Davidson on June 2 as its new Vice President of Engineering.

"We've been talking to Jim about this position for some time," said Harley-Davidson spokesperson Maripat Blankenheim in Motorcycle.

Federico spent nearly 36 years at GM and retired as the company's Executive Director of Global Vehicle Integration. He held high-level engineering positions for a wide variety of vehicles including the Chevrolet Spark (pictured above), Cadillac CTS and many others. However, his most notable recent job was as lead investigator on a team that examined the automaker's faulty ignition switches. In 2012, his group analyzed the components to understand what was happening to them. However, he later left the team because of an excessive workload. "Jim plans to take on new engineering and design challenges outside of the auto industry," said the the automaker's official statement on his retirement.

Federico's leaving appeared to be timed as GM split its engineering department into two sections. John Calabrese, GM Vice President of Global Vehicle Engineering, also retired during the change.

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