Sr Hardware Engineer

Ford•Dearborn, MI

About The Position

Analyze circuit designs against industry standards and automotive requirements for signal integrity (SI) and electrical robustness. Perform simulations to identify and resolve potential issues; conduct lab measurements for validation and correlation. Define SI budgets for individual segments (board, cable, connectors, etc.), considering jitter, noise, crosstalk, and EMI/EMC. Formulate board‑level requirements for layout, interconnects, routing, termination, and supporting components for end‑to-end design. Develop design verification test methods and execute tests in accordance with applicable industry and internal standards. Lead functional‑failure root‑cause analysis and corrective actions for prototypes and production vehicles. Lead component‑level qualification of networking components for use at Ford by reviewing EMI/EMC, interoperability, and other conformance reports. Interface with Product Development teams—Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), Electrical Distribution Systems (EDS), and Vehicle Validation—to integrate SI considerations throughout the development process. Provide technical guidance to Product Development on feasibility, design alternatives, and design oversight for in‑vehicle network implementations. Contribute to industry standards efforts to reduce component cost, improve test automation, and address common automotive challenges in collaboration with industry experts. Collaborate with software and firmware teams to support hardware bring‑up and testing. Build strong relationships with silicon, cable, and connector vendors to evaluate and introduce emerging technologies. Established and active employee resource groups

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or an equivalent technical discipline.
5+ years of progressive experience in electronic hardware design, with significant focus on complex high‑speed digital and mixed‑signal designs.
2+ years of experience with SI simulation and/or PCB design tools such as Altium Designer, Mentor Graphics, Cadence Allegro, Siemens HyperLynx, Cadence Sigrity, Ansys HFSS/SIwave, Polar Instruments, etc.
2+ years of hands‑on experience with electrical test equipment; proficient with oscilloscopes, vector network analyzers (VNA), time domain reflectometers (TDR), and circuit board rework.
Familiarity with industry‑standard automotive communication interfaces (e.g., CAN, LIN, SerDes, PCIe, Ethernet).
Proficiency in transmission line theory, S‑parameters, bit error rate (BER) testing, crosstalk, characteristic impedance, eye diagrams, and time-domain analysis.
Strong understanding of EMC/EMI principles in automotive applications.
Background in high‑reliability electronics designed for high‑volume production, including use of DFMEA and worst-case analysis (WCA) to develop robust designs.
PhD with 3+ years of relevant hardware/SI experience, or Master's degree with 7+ years of relevant hardware/SI experience.
5+ years of experience with SI simulation and PCB design tools.
In‑depth knowledge of transmission line and electromagnetic theory.

Nice To Haves

Automotive networking experience (e.g., 10BASE‑T1S, 100/1000BASE‑T1, Multi‑Gig T1, GMSL/FPD‑Link, CAN FD, LIN).
Deep understanding of typical vehicle EE architectures and automotive development processes.
Experience with networking hardware, network architectures/topologies, data rates, configurations, and protocols.
Experience capturing and authoring requirements and technical specifications.
Experience using vehicle diagnostic tools to troubleshoot, analyze, and resolve network issues.
Experience working with automotive standards organizations such as IEEE, SAE, Automotive SerDes Alliance (ASA), and the OPEN Alliance.
Self‑starter who takes ownership of loosely defined goals, drives clarity where needed, and collaborates effectively across functions to deliver results.

Responsibilities

Analyze circuit designs against industry standards and automotive requirements for signal integrity (SI) and electrical robustness.
Perform simulations to identify and resolve potential issues; conduct lab measurements for validation and correlation.
Define SI budgets for individual segments (board, cable, connectors, etc.), considering jitter, noise, crosstalk, and EMI/EMC.
Formulate board‑level requirements for layout, interconnects, routing, termination, and supporting components for end-to-end design.
Develop design verification test methods and execute tests in accordance with applicable industry and internal standards.
Lead functional‑failure root‑cause analysis and corrective actions for prototypes and production vehicles.
Lead component‑level qualification of networking components for use at Ford by reviewing EMI/EMC, interoperability, and other conformance reports.
Interface with Product Development teams—Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), Electrical Distribution Systems (EDS), and Vehicle Validation—to integrate SI considerations throughout the development process.
Provide technical guidance to Product Development on feasibility, design alternatives, and design oversight for in‑vehicle network implementations.
Contribute to industry standards efforts to reduce component cost, improve test automation, and address common automotive challenges in collaboration with industry experts.
Collaborate with software and firmware teams to support hardware bring‑up and testing.
Build strong relationships with silicon, cable, and connector vendors to evaluate and introduce emerging technologies.