Senior Product Affordability Engineer

Ford Motor Company • Palo Alto, CA

2d • $138,800 - $232,700 • Hybrid

About The Position

Ford Motor Company is building an early-development affordability capability that brings engineering, manufacturing, supply-chain insight, economics, and data together while product decisions are still open. The role is for a technically grounded problem solver who can understand how products are made, identify important cost and value drivers, and help teams make better product-development decisions. Relevant backgrounds may include engineering, manufacturing, cost engineering, technical purchasing or supply chain, supplier development, industrialization, and value engineering.

The engineer works across traditional organizational boundaries, partnering with product and design engineers and other stakeholders to evaluate vehicle decisions. The position leads affordability and value-engineering studies, applies cost models, benchmarks, supplier and market information, data, and digital tools, and turns complex questions into actionable alternatives and reusable organizational capabilities. It also helps shape the integration of affordability into vehicle development.

The position is hybrid, with a requirement to be onsite four or more days per week. The salary grade is 8, with a stated range of $138,800–$232,700; final grade and salary depend on candidate skills and experience, role scope, responsibility, and market value. Visa sponsorship is available. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States, with employment eligibility verified at hire.

Requirements

• A strong technical foundation and practical understanding of how products are designed and manufactured.
• Depth in at least one relevant engineering, manufacturing, supply-chain, supplier, value-engineering, or cost domain, with curiosity to work beyond that specialty.
• Ability to identify the variables that matter most in a complex problem and develop a useful point of view without perfect information.
• Comfort working directly with engineers, suppliers, purchasing, manufacturing teams, and other stakeholders to turn analysis into decisions.
• An ownership mindset, energy for ambiguous problems, ability to learn quickly, and capacity to create a path where one does not already exist.
• Analytical and digital fluency, with interest in using data, modeling, automation, and emerging tools to solve problems at greater scale.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States; employment eligibility will be verified at hire.

Responsibilities

• Work alongside product and design engineers on vehicle decisions while alternatives remain open.
• Explore how product requirements, design choices, manufacturing processes, supply-chain realities, and economics connect.
• Challenge established assumptions constructively, applying engineering judgment and facts to help teams find better solutions.
• Use cost models, benchmarks, supplier and market information, data, and digital tools at the level of detail appropriate to each decision.
• Lead cross-functional affordability and value-engineering studies from an open question to a clear point of view and actionable alternatives.
• Turn complex or recurring questions into reusable models, data, methods, automation, or tools that expand organizational capability.
• Help integrate affordability into vehicle development, rather than measuring cost only after decisions are made.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage.
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, and subsidized backup child care.
• Family-building benefits, including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement and fertility treatments.
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases.
• Tuition assistance.
• Employee resource groups.
• Paid time off for individual and team community service.
• 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: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed