Manager, Infrastructure & Platform Engineering, Ford Energy

Ford; Kentucky; On-site; USD 116,000 - 218,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/vision/dental coverage

Parental leave and family support

Tuition assistance

Vehicle discount program

Paid time off and holidays

Back-up child care

Job summary

Ford Energy is seeking a senior infrastructure leader to design, deploy, and govern cloud environments on GCP while guiding the plant's on-prem data center, edge compute solutions, and virtualization. You will collaborate with security and network teams to ensure resilient, scalable infrastructure.

The role requires 8+ years in IT infra with 3+ years in leadership, proven IaC automation, and hybrid expertise. It offers a leadership track with a competitive salary and employee benefits.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or relevant work experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) experience.
• Professional Cloud Architect or Cloud Engineer certification preferred.
• 8+ years in IT infrastructure with at least 3 years in a leadership or lead engineering role.
• Hybrid environments where cloud and physical hardware work in sync.
• Deep understanding of server hardware, enterprise storage, and data center infra.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools to automate deployments.

Responsibilities

• GCP Governance: design, deploy, and manage Ford Energy's cloud environments.
• Cloud Economics: monitor and optimize cloud consumption for cost-effectiveness.
• Identity & Security: implement IAM policies and security configurations in the cloud.
• On-Premises & Edge Infrastructure: lead design and setup of the plant's local data center and edge compute solutions.
• Virtualization: manage on-site virtualization to maximize hardware utilization.
• Business Continuity: develop backup and disaster recovery strategies across hardware and cloud.
• Monitoring & Observability: implement tools for 24/7 system visibility.
• Project & Vendor Leadership: lead deployment during plant construction and go-live, procure hardware.

Skills

GCP Expertise

Hybrid Proficiency

Leadership experience

Automation (IaC)

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

Cloud Architecture & Management (GCP Focus)

• GCP Governance: Design, deploy, and manage Ford Energy's cloud environments.
• Cloud Economics: Monitor and optimize cloud consumption to ensure cost-effectiveness while maintaining high performance.
• Identity & Security: Implement and maintain robust Identity and Access Management policies and security configurations within the cloud environment.

On-Premises & Edge Infrastructure

• Physical Hosting: Lead the design and setup of the plant's local data center/server rooms, including rack layouts, power requirements, and cooling coordination.
• Edge Computing: Implement high-availability edge compute solutions to support real-time manufacturing data and low-latency production requirements.
• Virtualization: Manage the on-site virtualization layer to ensure maximum hardware utilization and resilience.

Operational Reliability & Data Integrity

• Business Continuity: Develop and test comprehensive backup and disaster recovery strategies that span both physical hardware and cloud workloads.
• Monitoring & Observability: Implement advanced monitoring tools to ensure 24/7 visibility into system health.
• Storage Management: Architect and manage scalable storage solutions for massive manufacturing datasets, ensuring data is available for analysis and long-term retention.

Project & Vendor Leadership

• Deployment: Lead the technical execution of infrastructure projects during the plant's construction and 'go-live' phases.
• Hardware Sourcing: Work with vendors to specify and procure the physical infrastructure needed for the facility.

Required

• Bachelor Degree or relevant work experience
• GCP Expertise: 5+ years of hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Professional Cloud Architect or Cloud Engineer certification is highly preferred.
• Infrastructure Experience: 8+ years in IT infrastructure with at least 3 years in a leadership or lead engineering role.
• Hybrid Proficiency: Proven experience managing 'hybrid' environments where cloud and physical hardware must work in sync.
• Hardware Knowledge: Deep understanding of server hardware, enterprise storage, and data center physical infrastructure.
• Automation: Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools to automate environment deployment.

Preferred Skills & Attributes

• Manufacturing Context: Experience supporting a 24/7 production environment where system uptime directly impacts manufacturing throughput.
• Containerization: Strong knowledge of Kubernetes and Docker, particularly in a manufacturing or IIoT context.
• Problem Solver: A 'get-it-done' mindset with the ability to troubleshoot complex issues across the full stack (from a physical cable to a cloud API).
• Collaborative: Ability to work closely with the Network and Security teams to ensure a seamless and hardened infrastructure.

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 technology 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 leadership level 6 and ranges from $115,500-$218,100.

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.

Company: As Ford establishes a wholly owned subsidiary focused on Battery Energy Storage Systems, this role will initially be employed by Ford and is expected to transition to the subsidiary within one year.

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.