Ford Motor Company

Product Development Engineer - Exterior Underbody Structure Architecture

Ford Motor Company$86K — $166K *
Manufacturing & Automotive
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field
  • 5 years of experience in Structures Product Development
  • Strong understanding of early product definition for Underbody Structures
  • Proven experience in launch delivery for major automotive programs
  • Familiarity with CAD (Catia V5 or 3DX or Teamcenter) and BOM management
  • Demonstrated problem-solving skills with emphasis on business plan analysis
  • Ability to work collaboratively within engineering teams and influence decisions

Responsibilities

  • Develop and deliver engineering work products for exterior system designs
  • Lead alignment of Underbody Structure KPIs including Quality, Cost, and Performance
  • Create design solutions aligned with program scope and affordability
  • Define design specifications based on attribute performance and manufacturing feasibility
  • Utilize data to define FMEA actions and drive architecture execution
  • Enhance design from concepts to applicable architectures while avoiding failures
  • Deliver architecture design recommendations to meet program milestones

Benefits

  • Immediate medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage
  • Flexible family care days and paid parental leave
  • Adoption and surrogacy reimbursement, fertility treatments
  • Employee vehicle discount program and management leases
  • Tuition assistance for further education
  • Active employee resource groups
  • Generous paid time off and holidays including end-of-year break
Full Job Description
Job Description

In this position...

An engineering role within the Exterior Underbody Structure Architecture team, reporting to a Structures Architecture Supervisor. The engineer is responsible for developing technical content, strategy, and processes for exterior underbody structural systems including frames, subframes, body mounts, front end structure, floor structure, bumper beams, tow hitches, tow recovery systems, EV battery structures, and associated hardware required for underbody functional interface. In this role, you will work as part of a team to support exterior advanced architecture by defining robust underbody structure design solutions, assuring quality performance, and delivering target designs for underbody structure components and systems.

This position collaborates across product development, manufacturing, suppliers, and core engineering to support product and technology development, supplier sourcing inputs, design analytical verification aligned to production requirements, and implementation of quality assurance through FMA methodology.

Responsibilities

What you'll do...
  • Work within the Exterior Underbody Structure Architecture team to develop and deliver engineering work products that support robust exterior system design solutions.
  • Lead & ensure successful alignment of Underbody Structure KPIs including Quality, Cost, Weight & Functional Performance for major programs prior to the Strategic Confirmation milestone.
  • Derive efficient underbody structure system design solutions aligned to program scope definition, technology readiness and capability, and affordable program targets for cost and TFLE.
  • Create underbody structure systems fundamental design definitions aligned to attribute performance targets and manufacturing feasibility through systemic analysis of interactions between interfacing components and systems.
  • Utilize customer-based data, Quality History, prior issues Prevent recurrence, and reliability & robustness methods to define FMEA action items tied to fundamental underbody architecture execution affiliated with each program.
  • Mature underbody structure design from surrogate or concept designs to align with applicable architecture with continuous focus on failure mode avoidance.
  • Deliver robust architecture design recommendations, with defined fixed and variable parameters, to support on-time program milestones with quality.
  • Build strong relationships and collaborate with Flexible Vehicle Architecture, Design Technical Operations, Manufacturing, and Supplier partners.
  • Communicate underbody structure architectural issues, trade-offs, risks, and recommendations with the supervisor, management, and cross-functional partners.
  • Construct & develop relevant business cases for system selection alignment that offer proper support of program and corporate EBIT.
  • Support your supervisor and broader team in end-to-end underbody structure architecture development through technical analysis, target alignment, issue resolution, and design maturity tracking.
  • Ability to share & present work with cross-functional teams, Exterior Applications engineering teammates, and executive leadership with professionalism tied to technical data and facts.
  • Collaborate with structures core engineering for recent lessons learned via tech club and other forums.
  • Responsible for defining architecture design executions that meet/exceed quality targets, such as Safety, NVH, stiffness, and supply-base controls.
  • Integrate Structural Systems TVM actions into forward models designs, to avoid post Job 1 design churn for cost reduction.
  • Support Team-of-Four forums for design system selection, target derivation and alignment, and supplier sourcing plans that meet quality delivery and timing requirements.


Qualifications

You'll have...

Minimum Requirements:
  • Bachelor of Science in Engineering or a related field
  • 5 years of experience in Structures Product Development
  • Thorough knowledge of early product definition and proven skill of deciphering deliverables for
  • Underbody Structures commodities
  • Launch delivery experience on at least one major program required
  • The D&R Engineer is responsible for managing product release CAD and BOM structures, including assembly positioning and mass attribute analysis. This role also includes facilitating supplier data integration and developing CAD studies to support and drive design improvements.
  • Catia V5 or 3DX or Teamcenter experience
  • Demonstrated problem solving skills with emphasis on business plan comparisons for different solutions.
  • Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively as part of an engineering team and influence technical decisions through data-driven recommendations
  • Position will require occasional travel to Ford and supplier assembly plants for process reviews, technology demonstrations and PD events.
  • Travel to global Ford engineering locations will be occasional.

Even better, if you have ...

Preferred
  • Master's degree preferred
  • Program experience from inception through final design judgement required.


You may not check every box, or your experience may look a little different from what we've outlined, but if you think you can bring value to Ford Motor Company, we encourage you to apply!

As an established global company, we offer the benefit of choice. You can choose what your Ford future will look like: will your story span the globe, or keep you close to home? Will your career be a deep dive into what you love, or a series of new teams and new skills? Will you be a leader, a changemaker, a technical expert, a culture builder...or all of the above? No matter what you choose, we offer a work life that works for you, including:
• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year's Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

This position is salary grades 7 - 8 and ranges from $86,600 -$166,200.

Final determination of salary grade will be based on candidate's skills and experience, and base salary will be set within the applicable range according to job scope, responsibility and competitive market value.

For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/GSR

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

This position is hybrid. Candidates who are in commuting distance to a Ford hub location may be required to be onsite four or more days per week.

#LI-Hybrid

#VehicleHardwareEngineering

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About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company manufactures or distributes automobiles in addition to offering financial services. The company sells to dealerships for retail sales, and for sale to fleet customers, including commercial fleet customers, daily rental car companies, and governments. Ford’s vehicle portfolio includes automobiles, buses, tractors, and trucks. Retail financing includes retail installment sale contracts for new and used vehicles, and direct financing leases for new vehicles to retail customers, government entities, daily rental car companies, and fleet customers. Finance receivables in the non-consumer portfolio include products offered to automotive dealers. Ford’s environmental initiatives include compressed natural gas, flexible fuel vehicles, electric drive vehicles, Hydrogen, PC power management, and so on. Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford in 1903 and is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan.

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At Ford Motor Company, you will collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the industry. Our professionals are at the forefront of automotive technology, leading projects that redefine transportation and sustainability. With a culture rooted in continuous improvement and respect for all, Ford offers a workplace where leadership, diversity training, and innovation are part of everyday life.

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Engage in work that makes a difference. Ford Motor Company is pioneering developments in electrification, autonomous vehicles, and smart mobility solutions. Our team of over 190,000 employees worldwide is dedicated to crafting experiences that improve the way the world moves.

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Learn more about Ford Motor Company
Size
183,000 employees
Market Cap
$44.8 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$1.2 billion
Founded
1903
5 Year Trend
-2.1%
Revenue
$127.1 billion
NASDAQ

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