Mechatronic Systems Supervisor

Ford Motor • Dearborn, MI

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Mechatronic Systems Supervisor leads and develops a team of Core Systems Engineers responsible for defining, developing, and validating the logical requirements for new and modified mechatronic vehicle features (e.g., electric power steering, e-actuators, motor/gear systems, sensor-actuator control loops, and closed-loop control systems). The team owns the feature definition process end-to-end — from stakeholder/use-case elicitation, through Concept of Operations, system definition, system analysis, and functional safety (DFMEA) development, to the generation and handoff of logical requirements to the Mechatronics application team. Beyond requirements handoff, the Supervisor's team remains the primary stakeholder throughout the iterative hardware/software cascade and simulation activities performed by Mechatronics, leads the functional safety-to-DFMEA cross-validation checkpoint, and serves as the accountable owner of system/subsystem sign-off. The team also leads physical realization of the system — building mockups, fixtures, or 3D-printed prototypes — and develops and executes the associated test plans. The Supervisor is accountable for the technical quality, timeliness, and process discipline of the team's requirements and sign-off deliverables, for resource planning and workload distribution across programs, and for the professional growth of direct reports. The role acts as the primary escalation point and program-facing leader for mechatronic feature development, balancing engineering rigor, program timing, and cross-functional relationships with the program, customer experience and vehicle architecture teams, the Mechatronics application team, and quality/supplier partners.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Mechatronics, Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, or Automotive Engineering (or related field)
• 10+ years of experience in systems engineering, requirements development, or mechatronic systems engineering within automotive or a related industry, including experience generating and owning logical/system requirements
• 2+ years of experience leading, supervising, or mentoring engineers, either in a formal management role or as a technical lead
• Strong understanding of the systems engineering lifecycle: stakeholder/use-case elicitation, Concept of Operations, system definition, system analysis, and requirements validation
• Experience with DFMEA and cross-validation of functional safety findings against design failure modes
• Familiarity with requirements management tools (e.g., Jama), systems/requirements traceability practices, and Agile/JIRA-based program tracking
• Working knowledge of control system modeling (MATLAB/Simulink) and hardware/software cascade concepts sufficient to guide iterative collaboration with the Mechatronics application team
• Experience overseeing physical prototype development (mockups, fixtures, 3D printing/rapid prototyping) and test plan development/execution
• Strong people-leadership skills: coaching, performance management, workload planning, and conflict resolution
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present requirements, risk, and sign-off recommendations to senior program leadership and review boards
• English proficiency

Nice To Haves

• Experience with ISO 26262 (Functional Safety) and ASPICE processes for mechatronic/embedded systems
• Experience with SysML/Cameo or other formal systems modeling tools
• Knowledge of vehicle network protocols (CAN, LIN, Ethernet, FlexRay)
• Familiarity with statistical tolerance analysis, DFMEA/PFMEA, and reliability/durability testing methods
• Prior experience in a feature ownership, release engineering, or sign-off authority role within an OEM or Tier 1 mechatronics environment
• Experience with HIL/SIL test environments and tools (dSPACE, CANoe/CANalyzer, LabVIEW) to support technical dialogue with the Mechatronics team

Responsibilities

• Directly supervise, coach, and develop Core Systems Engineers, setting individual and team goals aligned to program milestones and department objectives
• Conduct performance management, including goal setting, performance reviews, skills development plans, and career growth conversations
• Plan team capacity and staffing; assign engineers to features/programs based on workload, complexity, and development needs
• Recruit, onboard, and mentor new engineers; identify training needs (e.g., requirements management tools, MATLAB/Simulink, ISO 26262, ASPICE, systems modeling) and coordinate skill-building
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, and systems thinking across the full feature lifecycle within the team
• Oversee team communication and coordination of the Feature development process
• Guide the team's engagement with program, customer experience, and vehicle architecture stakeholders to understand the feature vision, define the problem, identify stakeholders, and collect use cases
• Ensure the team develops sound Concept of Operations, system definition (structure, behavior, interfaces), and system analysis deliverables for each new or modified feature
• Review and approve the team's logical requirements prior to handoff, ensuring completeness, testability, and traceability to use cases and system definition artifacts
• Direct the team's DFMEA workstream in parallel with requirements development
• Own the handoff of logical requirements to the Mechatronics application team, and ensure the team provides ongoing, iterative support as Mechatronics cascades requirements to hardware/software and develops MATLAB/Simulink models and virtual (HIL/SIL) verification
• Drive the functional safety-to-DFMEA cross-validation checkpoint, ensuring hazards and high-severity failure modes identified by Core SE and Mechatronics are fully reconciled with no open gaps prior to sign-off
• Serve as the accountable leader representing Core SE as the primary stakeholder in formal system/subsystem sign-off decisions, jointly with the Mechatronics team, at program gateways
• Ensure open issues, non-conformances, and engineering waivers are tracked, risk-assessed, and resolved prior to sign-off
• Maintain requirements traceability from use cases and system definition through logical requirements, verification, and sign-off
• Lead the team's ownership of physical system realization, including mockups, fixtures, and 3D-printed/rapid prototypes
• Oversee the development and execution of test plans against industry-standard test criteria to validate physical prototypes
• Review test results and root-cause analyses, and ensure findings are fed back into requirements or design as needed
• Ensure documentation of prototype builds, test plans, and results is complete and audit-ready
• Act as the primary liaison between the Core Systems Engineering team and program management, customer experience and vehicle architecture teams, the Mechatronics application team, quality, and suppliers
• Represent the team at program gateway reviews, sign-off boards, and DFMEA workshops; communicate requirements status, sign-off status, technical risks, and mitigation plans to engineering management and program stakeholders
• Ensure compliance with relevant standards (e.g., ISO 26262 Functional Safety, IATF 16949, ASPICE, SAE) throughout the feature lifecycle
• Escalate and resolve resource, timing, and technical conflicts that affect program milestones
• Champion continuous improvement of the feature definition, sign-off, and prototyping process

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: Manager