Design Technologist & Prototyper

Ford Design; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 233,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vehicle discount program for employees

Job summary

Ford Design is seeking a hands-on Design Technologist & Prototyper to transform early concepts into tangible prototypes. You will work with designers, researchers, and engineers to build, assemble, and test vehicle-focused prototypes in a Makerspace or shop environment.

The role emphasizes physical making, learning on the job, and sharing learnings to improve prototypes for reviews and evaluations. On-site in Palo Alto, CA, with opportunities to travel for hardware experiences.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED.
• Experience building, fabricating, modifying, repairing, or prototyping something you can show and discuss.
• Hands-on experience using basic tools and at least one fabrication or prototyping process, such as 3D printing, cutting, drilling, sanding, assembly, or simple electronics.
• Ability to perform physical work, spend much of the day on your feet, and lift up to 50 pounds.
• Ability to collaborate with designers and engineers and clearly explain what you built, the decisions you made, challenges encountered, and anything blocking progress.
• Comfort working with ambiguity, evolving concepts, and rapidly shifting priorities.
• Pride in workmanship and willingness to redo or improve work to achieve a high-quality result.
• Curiosity, initiative, and motivation to learn new tools, machines, materials, and processes.
• Current valid driver's license.
• No rigid years-of-experience requirement: High-potential candidates with strong making skills, initiative, and learning agility are encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities

• Build physical prototypes from rough concepts through cleaner, testable versions using a variety of tools, materials, and fabrication methods.
• Cut, fit, assemble, modify, and install prototype parts on workbenches and in vehicles.
• Help teammates complete builds from start to finish, including the detailed, routine, and physical work required to deliver a successful prototype.
• Use and learn shop equipment, including 3D printers and other fabrication tools and machines.
• Translate early concepts into tangible prototypes for design reviews, leadership demonstrations, research clinics, and vehicle-based evaluations.
• Rapidly change, repair, or rebuild prototypes when feedback changes the original direction.
• Support vehicle disassembly, installation, reassembly, and hands‑on prototype testing as needed.
• Keep the Makerspace operating smoothly by organizing tools, maintaining machines, stocking materials, and keeping the workspace clean and safe.
• Document build steps, decisions, challenges, and lessons learned so the work can be repeated and improved by others.
• Continue learning new tools, machines, materials fabrication methods, and basic digital or CAD processes.

Skills

Hands-on making

Team collaboration

Explain built work

Curiosity and learning

Problem solving

Education

High school diploma or GED

Tools

Fusion 360

3D printing

Laser cutting

CAD tools

Job description

Experience Strategy & Design Team

The Experience Strategy & Design team brings together product designers, design technologists, and prototypers to explore what is possible across Ford's digital and physical vehicle ecosystem. The team works in small, fast-moving groups to define next-generation in-vehicle experiences and create the physical and interactive prototypes needed to evaluate them early.

Job Description

Experience Strategy & Design team brings together product designers, design technologists, and prototypers to explore what is possible across Ford's digital and physical vehicle ecosystem. The team works in small, fast-moving groups to define next-generation in-vehicle experiences and create the physical and interactive prototypes needed to evaluate them early. Rather than focusing only on individual features, the team connects concepts, customer needs, technical capabilities, hardware, and software into cohesive vehicle experiences. These prototypes are used for design reviews, leadership demonstrations, research clinics, and vehicle-based evaluations so ideas can be tested, improved, and prepared for delivery.

In this position...

We are looking for a hands‑on Design Technologist & Prototyper who loves building, experimenting, and bringing ideas into the physical world. You will work alongside designers, researchers, and engineers to transform early concepts into tangible prototypes that can be installed, demonstrated, tested, and improved.

Physical building is the core of this job. You should be excited to spend much of your day in a shop or Makerspace cutting, fitting, assembling, modifying, troubleshooting, and helping teammates complete builds. Basic computer and CAD skills are helpful, but advanced digital design or Figma expertise is not required. CAD and other digital tools can be learned on the job.

We welcome candidates from many backgrounds, including high school or vocational programs, shop classes, Makerspaces, garages, fabrication environments, automotive enthusiast communities, technical trades, personal projects, and entry‑level roles. We are more interested in what you have built, how you learned, and your willingness to contribute than in a specific number of years of experience.

This role is onsite in Palo Alto, CA.

Responsibilities

• Build physical prototypes from rough concepts through cleaner, testable versions using a variety of tools, materials, and fabrication methods.
• Cut, fit, assemble, modify, and install prototype parts on workbenches and in vehicles.
• Help teammates complete builds from start to finish, including the detailed, routine, and physical work required to deliver a successful prototype.
• Use and learn shop equipment, including 3D printers and other fabrication tools and machines.
• Translate early concepts into tangible prototypes for design reviews, leadership demonstrations, research clinics, and vehicle-based evaluations.
• Rapidly change, repair, or rebuild prototypes when feedback changes the original direction.
• Support vehicle disassembly, installation, reassembly, and hands‑on prototype testing as needed.
• Keep the Makerspace operating smoothly by organizing tools, maintaining machines, stocking materials, and keeping the workspace clean and safe.
• Document build steps, decisions, challenges, and lessons learned so the work can be repeated and improved by others.
• Continue learning new tools, machines, materials fabrication methods, and basic digital or CAD processes.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED.
• Experience building, fabricating, modifying, repairing, or prototyping something you can show and discuss. Personal projects, school or shop classes, employment, hobbyist projects, vehicle projects, and team builds all count.
• Hands‑on experience using basic tools and at least one fabrication or prototyping process, such as 3D printing, cutting, drilling, sanding, assembly, or simple electronics.
• Ability to perform physical work, spend much of the day on your feet, and lift up to 50 pounds.
• Ability to collaborate with designers and engineers and clearly explain what you built, the decisions you made, challenges encountered, and anything blocking progress.
• Comfort working with ambiguity, evolving concepts, and rapidly shifting priorities.
• Pride in workmanship and willingness to redo or improve work to achieve a high‑quality result.
• Curiosity, initiative, and motivation to learn new tools, machines, materials, and processes.
• Current valid driver's license.
• No rigid years‑of‑experience requirement: High‑potential candidates with strong making skills, initiative, and learning agility are encouraged to apply, even when their experience comes from personal or nontraditional projects.

Even Better You’ll Have…

• Experience in a shop, garage, fabrication lab, or Makerspace environment.
• Automotive modification, restoration, repair, assembly, customization, or personal vehicle project experience.
• Fabrication experience using wood, plastic, metal, or similar materials.
• Exposure to laser cutting, manual machining, welding, finishing, simple electronics, or CAD tools such as Fusion 360.
• Vehicle disassembly, assembly, modification, or component installation experience.
• Automotive HMI, IVI, embedded systems, or related experience.
• Understanding of interaction design, UI architecture, or systems thinking.
• Experience working in a fast‑paced, iterative, cross‑functional environment.
• Experience supporting research studies, customer clinics, demonstrations, or prototype evaluations.
• Willingness to travel occasionally to experience hardware or prototypes in person.
• These qualifications are differentiators, not automatic rejection criteria. Candidates who demonstrate hands‑on ability, curiosity, initiative, and enthusiasm for building are strongly encouraged to apply.

Who May Thrive In This Role

• You enjoy building, fixing, modifying, fabricating, or experimenting with physical things.
• You are comfortable doing practical, detailed, and sometimes repetitive shop work to help the team complete a build.
• You like spending time in garages, workshops, Makerspaces, labs, or fabrication environments.
• You have completed personal, school, hobby, or work projects that demonstrate initiative and problem‑solving.
• You are genuinely interested in cars, vehicle experiences, transportation, technology, or how things work.
• You can explain what you built, what went wrong, how you solved the problem, and what you would improve next time.
• You are excited to learn from experienced designers and engineers while contributing strong hands‑on making skills.

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 salary grade 6 and ranges from $100,400-$232,700.

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 not 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.