Camera Software Engineering Manager

Ford Model e U.S.; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vehicle discount

Tuition assistance

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Ford Model e seeks a Camera Software Engineering Manager to own end-to-end delivery of in-vehicle camera features, aligning IVI software and embedded firmware across the full lifecycle. You will manage engineers and coordinate with Android, firmware, hardware/SoC, security, V&V, quality, and manufacturing teams to ship live video streaming, image capture, ML-powered features and object detection.

This leadership role requires 7–10 years in software, 3+ years leading teams, deep Linux and driver

Qualifications

• 7–10 years of software engineering experience.
• 3+ years leading or managing engineering teams that shipped products.
• Familiarity with camera/video software, including pipelines, codecs and real-time systems.
• Strong Linux fundamentals and driver integration.
• Embedded/OS: C/C++, Linux, RTOS (Zephyr preferred), bootloaders and drivers.
• IVI stack: Kotlin/Java, AAOS, Jetpack Compose, JNI.
• Device-to-device vehicle comms (UDS, automotive Ethernet).
• CI/CD, automated testing, and code-quality gates.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end feature lifecycle from requirements to OTA release for IVI software and embedded firmware.
• Lead cross-functional teams across Android, firmware, hardware/SoC, security, V&V, quality and manufacturing.
• Deliver camera capabilities like live streaming, image capture, ML-powered features and object detection.

Skills

Software engineering

Team leadership

Camera/video software

Linux fundamentals

C/C++

IVI/AAOS stack

CI/CD

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

ARM Cortex-M

Zephyr RTOS

Job description

We are seeking a Camera Software Engineering Manager to own the end-to-end delivery of in-vehicle camera features, driving alignment between the IVI software and the embedded camera firmware. This person is accountable for the full feature lifecycle, from requirements and architecture through implementation, integration, validation, manufacturing readiness, and OTA release, across both the IVI software and embedded firmware sides of the stack.

This is a cross-functional leadership role. You will manage engineers and coordinate across Android, firmware, hardware/SoC partners, security, V&V, quality, and manufacturing teams to ship reliable camera capabilities such as live video streaming to the IVI display, image capture, machine-learning-powered features, and object-detection use cases

You’ll have…

• 7–10 years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years leading or managing engineering teams that delivered shipped products.
• Familiarity with camera/video software, including capture pipelines, ISP, streaming, H.264/H.265 codecs, and latency-sensitive real-time systems
• Understanding machine-learning inference and computer-vision workflows for camera applications, including model integration, performance optimization, and deployment on resource-constrained platforms. Demonstrated experience owning features end-to-end across an application layer and an embedded/firmware layer.
• Solid understanding of Linux operating system fundamentals, system-level programming, and driver integration.
• Deep expertise on at least one side of the stack, with working fluency on the other:
  • IVI: Kotlin/Java, AAOS (IVI Automotive OS), Jetpack Compose, JNI.
  • Embedded / OS: C/C++, Linux, RTOS (Zephyr preferred), bootloaders, and device drivers.
• Experience with device-to-device / vehicle communication protocols (e.g., UDS, state-sync frameworks, automotive Ethernet).
• Proven track record with CI/CD, automated testing, and code-quality gates.
• Experience working with V&V, QA, systems engineering, and other cross-functional teams to deliver production software.
• Excellent cross-functional communication and program management skills.

Even better, you may have…

• Experience in automotive / in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) software.
• Hands-on background with ARM Cortex-M based SoCs and vision/camera microcontrollers
• Experience shipping OTA firmware updates and managing multi-target build matrices across hardware variants.
• Familiarity with distributed state synchronization and VHAL integration.

As an established global company, we offer the benefit of choice. 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, subsidized 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 is a leadership level 6 and ranges from $150,200-$283,500 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 Internal applicants: moving into this role may result in an adjustment to your current compensation based on the posted pay range for this role, taking into consideration your qualifications and other relevant factors.

Visa sponsorship is available 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.

This position is hybrid with a requirement to be onsite four or more days per week. #LI-Hybrid

#LI-MZ1 #UEV