Software Engineering Manager

Ford

9h • Remote

About The Position

We are seeking an expert technical leader to drive the Ford Container-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform, hosting OpenShift Virtualization (OSV), responsible for building, operating, and evolving secure, scalable, and automated Kubernetes infrastructure primarily on-premise. In this role, you will lead the design and delivery of a unified, self-service Kubernetes platform that empowers Ford development teams to efficiently deploy and manage production-grade container clusters hosting a combination of containers and virtualized machines. You will shape the future of Ford’s cloud-native infrastructure strategy, fostering innovation, optimizing operational excellence, and enabling seamless developer experience through industry-leading container orchestration and automation practices. You will work hand-in-hand with the GCP focused Container as a Service group

Requirements

• 8+ years of overall Software Engineering / IT Experience
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a closely related technical discipline.
• Extensive Kubernetes Expertise: Proven experience managing, deploying, and scaling Kubernetes clusters in production environments, ideally across hybrid cloud and on-premises data centers.
• Cloud Platform Proficiency: Strong working knowledge of one or more public cloud platforms (preferably Google Cloud Platform, AWS, or Azure) including container native services, networking, IAM, and storage integrations.
• Experience with Service Mesh Technologies: Hands-on experience with Istio, Linkerd, or other service mesh platforms to enhance security, observability, and traffic management.
• Strong Background in Monitoring & Observability Tools: Experience with Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, Dynatrace/Datadog, ELK stack, or Google Stackdriver for end-to-end observability and proactive incident detection.
• Experience Leading Large-Scale Automation Initiatives: Past success automating infrastructure provisioning, deployments, and operational tasks using advanced CI/CD tooling integrated with Kubernetes platforms.
• Infrastructure Automation and CI/CD: Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code tools (e.g., Terraform, Kustomize), Kubernetes operators, and continuous integration/deployment pipelines for containerized applications.
• Security and Compliance: Solid understanding of cloud-native security best practices, container security, and compliance frameworks relevant to enterprise IT environments
• Strong Stakeholder Engagement: Demonstrated ability influencing at senior management levels and driving enterprise-wide adoption of platform standards and best practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire the Kubernetes Platform Services team focused on delivering secure, scalable, and automated container orchestration at Ford.
• Develop and execute strategic initiatives to optimize Kubernetes cluster deployment and operational efficiency.
• Drive the team to consistently achieve performance goals and high-quality service delivery.
• Own the end-to-end design, deployment, and lifecycle management of Kubernetes clusters, ensuring seamless integration across Ford’s on-premise environments.
• Guarantee the clusters meet stringent requirements for availability, scalability, security, and resource efficiency.
• Partner deeply with application developers, platform engineers, and infrastructure teams to understand needs and provide expert Kubernetes guidance and troubleshooting support.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning within the team and across Ford’s technical organization.
• Stay abreast of cutting-edge Kubernetes developments and cloud-native best practices.
• Lead the adoption of innovations that improve deployment automation, cluster lifecycle management, security compliance, and observability.
• Establish and enforce standardized processes to ensure consistent, reliable, and secure Kubernetes operations organization-wide.
• Focus on developer/consumption experience as a first class citizen through simplification of environment provisioning and application deployment.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care, parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care 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