Engineering Program Manager

Ford-Motor-Company; Dearborn (MI); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision and Rx

Parental leave and family care support

Tuition assistance

Vehicle discount program

Paid time off & holidays

Job summary

Ford Motor Company seeks an Engineering Program Manager (EPM) to lead complex, high-impact technical programs bridging business strategy and engineering execution. You will ensure architecture alignment, risk mitigation, and agile governance while coordinating with senior leadership across multiple teams.

This role requires deep SDLC and cloud-platform understanding, capacity planning, and strong stakeholder influence.

Qualifications

• 5+ years leading complex, high-impact, and highly technical programs.
• 5+ years as a Technical Product/Program Manager with SDLC, data science lifecycles, cloud platforms and enterprise scalability.
• 5+ years of expert-level proficiency in program management methodologies (Agile, Kanban, Scaled Agile, Waterfall) and advanced Jira configuration, automation, and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage complex, high-impact programs of a highly technical nature, delivering on-time, high-quality launches within budget.
• Anticipate and mitigate technical and business risks; design robust mitigation and escalation paths.
• Design sophisticated capacity models and resource allocation strategies to optimize team capacity.
• Champion agile execution; establish standards for Jira usage, backlog grooming, and dependency management; lead complex backlog grooming sessions.
• Translate high-level product strategy into detailed technical requirements and align across engineering teams.

Skills

Autonomy

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional leadership

Architecture understanding

Influencing

Education

Bachelor of Computer Science, Information Systems, Systems Programming or equivalent

Tools

Jira

Agile

Kanban

Scaled Agile

Job description

In this position...

The Engineering Program Manager (EPM) is an expert technical leader responsible for the successful execution of complex, high-impact technical programs and cross-functional, dependent products. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, this role bridges the gap between business strategy, product management, and engineering execution.

The EPM possesses a deep architectural understanding of the entire project ecosystem, its integration points, and future scalability needs. They are responsible for strategically aligning senior leadership, driving continuous operational model improvements, translating product strategy into detailed technical requirements, and mitigating complex technical and platform-level risks.

What you’ll do...

Technical Acumen & Architectural Alignment

• Technical Deep-Dives:Deep-dive into complex technical issues to understand root causes, evaluate trade-offs, and propose strategic, scalable solutions.
• Architectural Understanding:Maintain a robust, end-to-end architectural understanding of the project ecosystem, integration points, and future scalability needs.
• Platform Impact Analysis:Analyze project and engineering plans for potential impacts on other products, systems, or the broader platform, proposing adjustments to mitigate negative cross-program consequences.
• Technical Adaptability:Quickly develop technical depth in unfamiliar or emerging technologies to understand proposed solutions and highlight technical risks or concerns.
• Scope & Dependency Management:Identify technical dependencies or solution misalignments across multiple products and bring them to the surface for rapid resolution.

Program Leadership & Execution

• Complex Program Delivery:Lead and manage complex, high-impact programs of a highly technical nature, consistently ensuring on-time, high-quality, and within-budget launches.
• Risk & Blockers Mitigation:Anticipate less-common technical and business risks that engineering teams encounter; proactively design and implement robust mitigation and escalation paths.
• Capacity & Scope Optimization:Design and implement sophisticated capacity management models and resource allocation strategies to optimize team capacity and protect technical teams from distractions.
• Agile Governance:Champion agile execution and data integrity. Establish and enforce standards for Jira usage, backlog grooming, and dependency management. Lead and facilitate complex backlog grooming sessions for Epics, ensuring strong alignment to MVP and point values.

Strategic Influence & Collaboration

• Product-to-Engineering Bridge:Work closely with engineers to translate high-level product strategy into detailed requirements and establish a shared technical understanding of project goals across engineers.
• Cross-Functional Leadership:Lead and facilitate complex collaboration across diverse, stakeholders on complex technical topics.

Documentation, Change Control & Data Integrity

• Comprehensive Documentation:Author comprehensive, highly technical, and business-centric project documentation (including roadmaps, logical/physical architecture diagrams, and dependency maps) in coordination with Engineering.
• Change Control & Compliance:Ensure robust change control documentation, audit trails, and historical context are maintained for long-running products.
• Data Integrity Standards:Establish and enforce standards for data integrity in relevant tools (e.g., Jira), ensuring that the system of record is a direct, reliable reflection of actual engineering work.

Innovation, Learning & Mentorship

• Process Innovation:Design and implement innovative project management strategies, frameworks, and governance models to optimize flow and predictability.
• VC&M Landscape Alignment:Stay current with industry trends in product management, agile methodologies, and the evolving VC&M technical landscape to drive modern, data-driven decision-making.

You’ll have...

• Bachelor of Computer Science, Information Systems, Systems Programming or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience
• 5+ years of experience leading complex, high-impact, and highly technical programs with significant strategic implications.
• 5+ years as a Technical Product/Program Manager with skills including:
  • Proven ability to operate autonomously with very little guidance, solving complex, ambiguous technical problems from beginning to end.
  • Strong track record of influencing multiple teams, product lines, and leadership decisions across an organization regarding strategic planning, capacity management, and process adherence.
  • Strong architectural understanding of software development lifecycles (SDLC), data science lifecycles, cloud platforms, integration points, and enterprise scalability.
• 5+ years ofexpert-level proficiency in program management methodologies (Agile, Kanban, Scaled Agile, Waterfall) and advanced Jira configuration, automation, and reporting.

Even better, you may have...

• Master’ Degree in Computer Science, Engineering Information Technology or similar technical field.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to bridge communication between senior business leaders and deep technical architects/engineers.

You may not check every box, or your experience may look a little different from what we've outlined, but if you think you can bring value to Ford Motor Company.

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 7-8 and ranges from $99,600-$192,900.

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 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.

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

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