Director, Vehicle Cloud and Mobility (VC&M) – Telemetry and Data Platform

Ford Motor • Dearborn, MI

8d • Hybrid

About The Position

Ford’s Electric Vehicles, Digital and Design (EVDD) team is charged with delivering the company’s vision of a fully electric transportation future. EVDD is customer-obsessed, entrepreneurial, and data-driven and is dedicated to delivering industry-leading customer experience for electric vehicle buyers and owners. You’ll join an agile team of doers pioneering our EV future by working collaboratively, staying focused on only what matters, and delivering excellence day in and day out. Join us to make positive change by helping build a better world where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. The Director, Vehicle Cloud and Mobility (VC&M) – Telemetry and Data Platform, will be responsible for leading a diverse and highly skilled team(s) of data platform and product engineers in driving strategy and development of future Vehicle Cloud and Mobility – Telemetry and Data Platforms and Products. This position will also own development, maintenance, and operational excellence of the existing generations of multiple highly critical data platform components that power Ford’s connected vehicle capabilities and cloud eco systems, including ensuring they meet the highest standards of availability, performance, and customer experience. This is a technical leadership position that has accountability for scoping and delivery of projects, strategies and objectives on time, and to plan. This global leadership position is an exciting and rapidly evolving space that requires adaptability and attention to detail. This position will report to the Head of VC&M Data Engineering and partner with other development leaders across cloud platform and operations, app, infotainment, and other vehicle systems. The candidate for this role must be able to adapt in a rapidly changing environment and drive consistency of purpose for a complex organization. Prior experience in leading cross functional teams in multifaceted technical, legal, and regulatory constrained environments is essential. The candidate will have demonstrated strong collaboration in delivering enterprise level initiatives. Prior experience in similar automotive delivery roles, or in associated Industries is an advantage. This position requires a leader who can operate confidently in both steady-state operational environments and ambiguous transformation spaces, balancing near-term delivery with long-term modernization.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electronics, Computer Science or Software Engineering or related field or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• 15 years working in an associated technical field.
• 5+ years of experience in designing, deploying, and supporting cloud-based solutions at scale
• Expert in data platforms and pipelines, including the associated data privacy and security.
• Strong understanding of APIs, integration patterns, and data exchange methods
• Knowledge of performance modeling, protocols, and cloud security principles
• Experience supporting “always-on” production systems
• Experience with multiple cloud providers, such as Google, Azure and AWS, and on-prem.
• Experience with remote diagnostics for devices, leading into prognostics.
• 5+ years experience leading and transforming a large multi-disciplined organization focused on delivery.
• 5+ years' experience leading teams across all areas of a device and user cloud, supporting multiple world-wide markets.
• Demonstrated experience writing, deploying, and supporting platform-based software in production using modern technologies.
• Working knowledge of VC&M preferred tech stack (Java, Spring Boot, Docker, GCP).
• Familiarity with the Cloud Vehicle Cloud functions, and Platform operations at scale.
• Ability to make informed decisions across both deep technical and high-level program contexts.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and leading teams through complex, multi-year transformation initiatives.
• Strong communicator who can translate technical concepts for diverse audiences and influence across organizational boundaries.
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to act decisively when data is incomplete.
• Passion for platform optimization, architectural improvement, and engineering excellence.
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to build trust across product, engineering, and operations teams.
• Proven people leadership experience in mission-critical delivery environments, balancing empathy with clear direction.
• Knowledge of Agile methodologies and tools (e.g., Jira).

Nice To Haves

• Master’s Degree
• Excellent communication skills both up and down the organization to achieve the desired results.
• Critical Thinking: Demonstrated examples of applying systemic thinking, logic, and reasoning skills to be able to identify opportunities, alternative solutions, or approaches to problems.
• Organizational skill: Strong collaboration skills, clear and concise direction coupled with an ability to move within the organization to complete work and balance tradeoffs.
• Strategic thinking: Demonstrated examples of driving strategy from concept through to Production.
• Experience leading global engineering teams and collaborating across product organizations.
• Ability to manage highly technical staff and partner with cross-functional technical teams.
• Skilled at leading through organizational change and ambiguity.
• Deep understanding of infrastructure architecture, cloud technologies, and 24x7 operational models
• Strong business acumen related to connected vehicle systems, IT operations, and customer experience.
• Excellent relationship-building and networking skills.
• Proven ability to drive process discipline and continuous improvement in a constructive manner.

Responsibilities

• Re-define a vision, strategy and set of KPIs for this function – specification, development, deployment, quality, and operations.
• Drive delivery discipline and best practices through the organization.
• Ensure projects and upgrades are delivered robustly and on time.
• Recruit, assign, develop and direct a diverse multi-disciplined skill team.
• Provide end-to-end ownership of data platform, product and services, ensuring reliability, scalability, and performance for global connected vehicle experiences.
• Lead the development, maintenance, and support of mission-critical platform components.
• Drive operational excellence through data-driven insights, real-world performance metrics, and continuous improvement practices.
• Ensure compliance with security, availability, and performance standards across all services under purview.
• Partner with Product, Security, Architecture, and Operations teams to maintain a stable, “always-on” customer experience.
• Serve as one of the primary technical and organizational change agent for the transformation, aligning engineering, product, and enterprise stakeholders.
• Drive long-term platform strategy, operational maturity, and continuous optimization in the modernized cloud environment.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director