AI Engineering Lead

Ford-Motor-Company; Dearborn (MI); On-site; USD 85,000 - 192,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Paid time off

Vehicle discount program

Tuition assistance

Employee resource groups

Paid holidays

Parental leave

Back-up child care

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI seeks an AI Engineering Lead to architect, build, and scale AI-powered solutions across ISDAIA products, accelerating delivery and adoption of AI capabilities.

You will partner with Product Managers, Engineering, Analytics, and Business stakeholders to identify high‑value use cases, develop reusable AI capabilities, and enable responsible AI adoption at scale. This role blends hands‑on leadership with product thinking and strategic execution.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a related field.
• 5–8 years delivering enterprise software, analytics, data, or AI solutions.
• 5+ years using Python-based development techniques and modern software practices.
• 3+ years deploying AI/ML or Generative AI solutions in production.
• Experience building Generative AI, conversational AI, Copilot, or agent-based solutions.
• Senior technical lead with architectural decision experience.
• Experience using Cloud AI Platforms (GCP preferred).
• Strong understanding of APIs, cloud-native architectures, CI/CD, and enterprise app development.
• Hands-on experience with Generative AI, RAG, vector databases, semantic search, grounding.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end AI solution delivery with Product, Engineering, Data, and Business teams.
• Ensure production-grade deployment of AI apps, copilots, and agent-based solutions.
• Build reusable AI accelerators, frameworks, and services for ISDAIA.
• Embed AI capabilities into dashboards, analytics platforms, apps, and workflows.
• Influence investment decisions with measurable impact and ROI.
• Establish monitoring frameworks for AI performance, reliability, governance.

Skills

Python-based development

CI/CD pipelines

GCP

AI/ML production

Generative AI

RAG architectures

APIs

Docker

Git

LangChain

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Engineering, IT, or equivalent

Tools

Vertex AI

BigQuery

LangGraph

Semantic Kernel

Spark

Job description

As the AI Engineering Lead, you will architect, build, and scale AI-powered solutions that accelerate both the delivery of Integrated Services Data, AI & Analytics (ISDAIA) products and the adoption of AI capabilities across the Integrated Services business.

You will lead the development of enterprise-grade AI applications, agentic systems, copilots, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) solutions, and intelligent workflow automation that transform how teams discover insights, make decisions, and deliver value.

This role combines hands‑on technical leadership with product thinking and strategic execution. You will partner closely with Product Managers, Engineering Teams, Analytics Leaders, and Business Stakeholders to identify high-value use cases, develop reusable AI capabilities, and enable responsible AI adoption at scale.

You will play a key role in shaping the future AI ecosystem for Integrated Services by building scalable frameworks, shared services, and AI‑enabled experiences that improve business outcomes, operational efficiency, and speed to delivery.

Strategic Thinking & Leadership

• Partner with business leaders and product teams to identify high‑value AI opportunities and translate them into scalable AI‑powered solutions.
• Define and communicate AI solution vision, roadmaps, and measurable success metrics.
• Drive AI strategy across Generative AI, Agentic AI, conversational experiences, AI‑enabled analytics, and intelligent automation initiatives.
• Establish governance frameworks for Responsible AI, security, compliance, scalability, and enterprise adoption.
• Lead cross‑functional AI programs and influence executive stakeholders through compelling business cases, demonstrations, and measurable outcomes.

Technical Leadership & Expertise

• Architect and oversee end‑to‑end AI solutions, including:
  • Conversational AI and Copilot experiences
  • Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures
  • Agentic AI frameworks and multi‑agent orchestration systems
  • AI‑powered analytics and insight generation solutions
  • Natural language interfaces for analytics and business intelligence
  • Intelligent workflow automation and decision‑support capabilities
  • Semantic search and enterprise knowledge management solutions
• Strong proficiency in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services for AI development (Vertex AI, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Dataflow).
• Experience designing and deploying enterprise AI solutions leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), foundation models, prompt engineering, and model evaluation frameworks.
• Experience building AI systems using Python‑based ecosystems and modern AI frameworks.
• Experience with vector databases, embeddings, semantic search, grounding techniques, and retrieval architectures.
• Implement scalable AI Engineering, MLOps, and LLMOps practices including CI/CD, prompt versioning, testing, governance, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Proficiency in Git, Docker, API‑based deployments, cloud‑native architectures, and scalable AI services.
• Apply strong software engineering practices including modular design, testing, observability, security, and documentation.
• Establish reusable AI frameworks, accelerators, and engineering patterns that improve speed, consistency, and quality of delivery.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and identify opportunities to accelerate analytics delivery and business adoption.
• Support architectural reviews and ensure best practices across AI systems, platforms, and products.
• Implement Responsible AI principles including governance, explainability, privacy, security, and ethical AI compliance.

Delivery Focus

• Own end‑to‑end AI solution delivery in partnership with Product, Engineering, Data, and Business teams.
• Ensure production‑grade deployment of AI applications, copilots, and agent‑based solutions using containerization, orchestration, and scalable cloud infrastructure.
• Build reusable AI accelerators, frameworks, and services that improve speed‑to‑delivery across the ISDAIA portfolio.
• Partner with product teams to embed AI capabilities directly into dashboards, self‑service analytics platforms, applications, and business workflows.
• Influence investment decisions using measurable business impact, adoption metrics, operational efficiencies, and ROI analysis.
• Establish monitoring frameworks for AI performance, solution effectiveness, reliability, governance, and user adoption.

Team Development & Community Leadership

• Lead and mentor AI engineers while establishing best practices for enterprise AI development.
• Build AI engineering standards, reusable frameworks, shared tooling, libraries, and delivery patterns across ISDAIA.
• Promote knowledge sharing through Communities of Practice and AI Centers of Excellence.
• Foster a culture of experimentation, continuous learning, innovation, and engineering excellence.
• Support talent development in emerging AI disciplines including Generative AI, Agentic AI, conversational experiences, and intelligent automation.
• Serve as a thought leader for enterprise AI adoption and AI‑enabled transformation initiatives.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in a related field (Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or equivalent).
• 5 to 8 years of experience delivering enterprise software, analytics, data, or AI solutions.
• 5+ years of experience using Python‑based development technologies and modern software engineering practices.
• 3+ years of experience designing, deploying, and supporting AI/ML or Generative AI solutions in production environments.
• Experience building and deploying Generative AI, conversational AI, Copilot, or agent‑based solutions.
• Experience acting as a senior technical lead facilitating solution trade‑offs and architectural decisions.
• Experience using Cloud AI Platforms (GCP preferred).
• Strong understanding of APIs, cloud‑native architectures, CI/CD pipelines, and enterprise application development.
• Hands‑on experience with Generative AI technologies, Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG), and enterprise AI deployment.

Preferred Requirements

• Master’s Degree in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or related field.
• Experience managing and growing high‑performing AI engineering teams.
• Experience developing enterprise copilots, AI assistants, agent‑based systems, and intelligent automation solutions.
• Experience implementing Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures, vector databases, semantic search, and knowledge‑grounding strategies.
• Strong working knowledge of GCP and enterprise AI architecture patterns.
• Expertise in open‑source technologies such as Python, LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, SQL, Spark, and modern AI development frameworks.
• Experience working with Vertex AI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or comparable enterprise AI ecosystems.
• Experience building reusable AI platforms, accelerators, frameworks, and enablement capabilities.
• Experience deploying AI solutions into business workflows, analytics products, self‑service insights platforms, or decision‑support solutions.
• Experience implementing Responsible AI, AI governance, MLOps, and LLMOps practices at enterprise scale.

You can choose what your Ford future will look like: will your story span the globe, or keep you close to home? Will your career be a deep dive into what you love, or a series of new teams and new skills? Will you be a leader, a changemaker, a technical expert, a culture builder…or all of the above? No matter what you choose, we offer a work life that works for you, including:

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp‑up programs, subsidised 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

This position ranges from salary grade 6-8 and ranges from $85,400-$192,000.

Final determination of salary grade will be based on candidate’s skills and experience, and base salary will be set within the applicable range according to job scope, responsibility and competitive market value.

Visa sponsorship IS available for this position.

Relocation assistance IS provided for this position.

Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status. In the United States, if you need a reasonable accommodation for the online application process due to a disability, please call 1-888-336-0660.

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