Product Development Engineer - Exterior Underbody Structure Architecture

Ford • Dearborn, MI

9d • $86,600 - $166,200 • Hybrid

About The 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.

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.

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

• 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.

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