Staff Exterior Lighting Systems Engineer

Ford Motor • Long Beach, CA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Staff Exterior Lighting Systems Engineer is responsible for designing, developing, validating, and delivering exterior lighting systems for advanced electric vehicle products. The role works with studio and engineering teams on concepts and feature development, integrates new technologies, and collaborates with cross-functional partners and suppliers to deliver production designs. Work spans studio design and modeling, prototyping, production, validation, and launch. The engineer owns product design throughout the development cycle for global markets, optimizing manufacturing processes and costs while meeting regional regulatory requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or an equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• At least 4 years of experience in automotive lighting component and system engineering at OEM or Tier 1 level.
• At least 4 years of experience using CAD collaboratively, such as 3DX, CATIA, NX, ICEMSURF, or Alias; 3DX and CATIA are preferred.
• At least 4 years of experience in lighting systems design, development, and release, including completion of at least one production launch cycle.
• At least 3 years of experience designing lighting systems to global regulatory requirements.

Nice To Haves

• Strong knowledge of homologation and photometric regulations related to exterior lighting, such as FMVSS 108 and ECE R48.
• Strong knowledge of optical system development processes and experience with optical simulation using SPEOS, LucidShape, or equivalent tools.
• Successful execution of automotive lighting production programs; experience with full LED lighting systems is preferred.
• Excellent understanding of lighting technologies, including lightguides, light blades, auto aiming, levelling, adaptive forward lighting (AFS), adaptive driving beam (ADB), laser, OLED, matrix, and DMD.
• Strong understanding of materials and manufacturing processes such as stamping, injection molding, casting, composites, etching, PVD, and other surface finishes.
• High level of expertise and proficiency with 3DX, CATIA, or similar tools, including drawing and modeling practices and methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Develop exterior lighting systems and products that meet studio aesthetic intent and global regulatory requirements.
• Engineer and execute exterior lighting from concept-design feasibility through production launch.
• Guide cross-functional integration of lighting systems with studio, vehicle engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing, and software teams to achieve technically feasible designs.
• Analyze, test, and validate prototype and production lighting designs from mechanical, electrical, and optical perspectives.
• Participate in development with architecture, planning, the supplier chain, and suppliers to optimize form, function, performance, and cost.
• Define requirements and specifications for exterior lighting systems to achieve vehicle attribute targets for structure, mass, and performance.
• Own product design throughout the development cycle and deliver designs for global markets.
• Optimize manufacturing processes and costs while meeting regional regulatory requirements.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage.
• Paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, and subsidized back-up 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.
• Vacation time, sick/personal time, and paid holidays, including between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.
• Visa sponsorship is available.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior