Mechanical Design Engineer, Thermal

Ford Motor • Long Beach, CA

3d • 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. In this position, you will join our dynamic and agile team pioneering Ford's EV future. As a Mechanical Design Engineer for Thermal Systems, you will own the physical design of thermal hardware across the entire system — coolant loops, refrigeration/heat-pump circuits, and HVAC/climate — turning thermal performance targets into robust, manufacturable components and assemblies. You will help design and package hardware that keep the battery, drive units, power electronics, and cabin within their thermal limits all the way from concept through production release.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• 3+ years of experience in mechanical design of automotive components or systems.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD (CATIA, NX, or 3DEXPERIENCE) for part and assembly modeling and detailing.
• Working knowledge of GD&T and tolerance stack-up analysis.
• Solid understanding of design for manufacture and assembly across multiple processes (e.g., molding, brazing, stamping).
• Familiarity with heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and pressure-system fundamentals as they apply to thermal hardware.

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree in a relevant engineering discipline.
• Direct experience designing thermal hardware — coolant loops, refrigeration/heat-pump circuits, heat exchangers, or HVAC units.
• Experience with EV thermal management systems (battery, drive unit, power electronics, and cabin cooling/heating).
• Familiarity with refrigeration and HVAC systems.
• Experience with actuator- and valve-driven hardware and control interfaces.
• Experience with DFMEA, DVP&R, and the release/change-management process for production parts.

Responsibilities

• Lead the mechanical design of thermal system hardware across one or more subsystems, translating performance and packaging requirements into detailed, manufacturable designs.
• Design thermal hardware across coolant, refrigeration, and HVAC/climate subsystems in 3D CAD from concept through production release.
• Package and route thermal hardware through the vehicle, resolving space, interface, and clearance constraints with adjacent systems (battery, drive unit, power electronics, IP, chassis, and body) and coordinating shared interfaces across subsystems.
• Translate thermal, hydraulic, and refrigerant performance targets from the system and subsystem engineers into physical geometry — flow paths, sealing, mounting, and heat-exchanger placement — that meets thermal, pressure, and flow requirements.
• Develop designs optimized for their manufacturing processes (injection molding, brazing, stamping, extrusion, machining) and for high-volume assembly, working with full service and build to print suppliers on tooling and process feasibility to balance cost, mass, and quality.
• Apply geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, perform tolerance stack-up analysis, and define critical dimensions to ensure fit, sealing, and function across the production range and across mating subsystems.
• Support structural, flow, thermal, and durability analysis (CFD/FEA in partnership with analysis teams), and use DFMEA to identify and mitigate various failure modes.
• Create and release detailed part and assembly drawings, manage engineering changes, and maintain CAD data and bills of materials through the product development process.
• Work closely with the system and subsystem engineers (who own performance targets), Controls Engineers (for actuator/valve strategy), test engineers (for validation), and suppliers (for tooling and build), supporting design reviews and readiness gates through launch.

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: Mid Level