Manager, System Software Validation & Verification

Ford; Palo Alto, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

Parental leave

Vehicle discount

Job summary

Ford in Palo Alto seeks an experienced leader to head the System Software Verification and Validation team. You will guide validation strategy, plan, and execution across vehicle systems, coordinating with development, systems engineering, and test teams to ensure safety and quality.

You will hire and mentor validation engineers, manage schedules, and drive issues to closure, with a strong focus on metrics, risk, and release readiness in a hybrid work environment.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in automotive systems, embedded software, or system validation.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers and managing competing program priorities.
• Experience defining and delivering system-level validation strategies from concept through production.
• Experience with test automation and CI integration.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the system-level validation strategy for embedded software and vehicle systems.
• Own the system-level test and validation plan and criteria.
• Lead cross-functional investigations, including root-cause analysis and actions to prevent regression.
• Coordinate validation activities with systems, software, and hardware teams to meet milestones.

Skills

Leadership

Test planning

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Automotive knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Tools

Vector

dSPACE

Job description

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic person to lead our System Software Verification and Validation (V&V) team. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in automotive testing and a proven track record of managing complex testing projects. This role involves overseeing the planning, execution, and reporting of system level test results to ensure our products meet the highest quality and safety standards. The manager will work directly with development and system engineering teams to develop a validation strategy to verify the system. This manager will be responsible for hiring a team of validation engineers and then drive the team to meet their committed deliverables as well as working with technical leads and managers across the broader organization to assess risk, communicate status and drive closure to key issues.

Validation Strategy and Planning

• Define and lead the system-level validation strategy for embedded software and vehicle systems, from early development through program release.
• Own the system-level test and validation plan, aligning requirements, risks, program objectives, and timing.
• Partner with systems, feature, software, and attribute owners to establish requirements traceability, test coverage, and clear acceptance criteria.
• Identify validation gaps early and ensure test plans, test cases, and scripts address functional and non-functional requirements.

System-Level Test Execution

• Lead validation across integrated systems, ECUs, software, interfaces, and vehicle domains at system level test properties and vehicles.
• Oversee integration, system, and acceptance testing to verify behavior across system boundaries and operating conditions.
• Coordinate test resources, environments, and schedules to meet program milestones.
• Ensure test results, risks, and release-readiness assessments are documented and communicated clearly and on time.

Issue Resolution and Quality

• Lead cross-functional investigations, including root-cause analysis, fix verification, and actions to prevent regression.
• Analyze test results and provide actionable feedback to development teams.
• Establish and monitor metrics for test coverage, execution, defect trends, and validation effectiveness.

Team and Stakeholder Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop validation and verification engineers; assign work based on team priorities and development needs.
• Manage customer validation requirements and present progress, results, and risks to senior leaders and stakeholders.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, innovation, quality, and safety.

You’ll have…

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related technical field.
• 12+ years of experience in automotive systems, embedded software, or system validation.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers and managing competing program priorities.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, including experience working across hardware, software, systems engineering, and program teams.
• Experience defining and delivering system-level validation strategies from concept through production.
• Experience managing validation schedules, resources, or lab capacity.
• Familiarity with vehicle testing standards and customer-specific validation requirements.
• Strong understanding of vehicle E/E architecture, embedded software, control systems, and cross-domain integration.
• Experience with system-level testing across benches, HIL platforms, and vehicles; familiarity with tools such as Vector or dSPACE.
• Knowledge of automotive networks and related formats, such as CAN, LIN, Ethernet, FlexRay, DBC, LDF, and ARXML.
• Experience developing, reviewing, or guiding automated and manual test execution, including smoke and regression testing.
• Experience with test automation, smoke and regression testing, requirements traceability, defect triage, and system-level debugging.
• Ability to interpret electrical and logical schematics, network diagrams, and wiring or harness drawings.
• Working knowledge of Automotive SPICE, ISO 26262, or other applicable development and safety processes.
• Experience integrating validation and regression testing into continuous integration workflows.

Even better, you may have…

You may not check every box, or your experience may look a little different from what we've outlined.

Benefits and Work-Life

• 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.

For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/LL6

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.