Manufacturing LAN Planning and Delivery Manager

Ford; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 133,000 - 251,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vehicle discount program

Tuition assistance

Paid time off

Job summary

Ford Motor Company is seeking an experienced Manufacturing LAN Planning and Delivery Manager to lead end‑to‑end planning and governance of wired and wireless LAN services for Ford plants.

You will coordinate across Manufacturing, Plant IT, Facilities, Network Engineering, Cybersecurity, and suppliers to ensure MDF/IDF readiness, scalable coverage, and secure, resilient network deployment aligned with production milestones.

Qualifications

• We recognize a strong background in infrastructure delivery and manufacturing IT.
• Experience leading cross-functional programs in plant environments is valued.
• Proven ability to manage supplier performance and budgets.

Responsibilities

• Lead planning and governance of the Manufacturing LAN portfolio.
• Coordinate with network engineering, cybersecurity, and suppliers.
• Ensure MDF/IDF readiness, fiber and copper pathways, and coverage.
• Guide plant launches and technology refreshes with risk mitigation.
• Translate constraints into milestones, risks, and decisions.

Skills

Leadership

LAN planning

Network delivery

Cross-functional collaboration

Project governance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/CS/IS/Business

Bachelor of Engineering preferred

Equivalent relevant experience

Tools

Cisco

Job description

ob Description

We are the movers of the world and the makers of the future. We get up every day, roll up our sleeves, and build a better world—together. At Ford, we’re all a part of something bigger than ourselves. Are you ready to change the way the world moves?

Do you believe reliable, secure, and resilient network connectivity is essential to building the vehicles of the future? We do! Ford’s manufacturing operations depend on high-performing wired and wireless network services to connect people, equipment, automation, applications, and digital tools across the plant floor. That’s where Enterprise Technology makes an impact. We enable the technology foundations that support safe, efficient, and uninterrupted manufacturing operations around the world.

We are seeking an experienced Manufacturing LAN Planning and Delivery Manager to lead the planning, governance, and coordinated delivery of wired and wireless LAN services for Ford manufacturing plants. In this role, you will translate plant programs, operational requirements, and technology needs into executable network plans that support production milestones without compromising safety, security, quality, or service continuity.

This role requires strong leadership, technical network knowledge, operational discipline, and the ability to coordinate across Manufacturing, Plant IT, Facilities, Network Engineering, Cybersecurity, Network Operations, construction trades, and external suppliers. You will lead a portfolio spanning plant modernization, new-model and capacity programs, technology refresh, plant-floor MDF and IDF readiness, high-density wireless, outdoor and yard connectivity, and critical manufacturing use cases that depend on the network.

Responsibilities include end-to-end network planning and readiness, portfolio governance, supplier and financial management, risk mitigation, delivery coordination, and continuous improvement. By combining technical expertise with strong program leadership, you will help ensure Ford manufacturing sites have the network capacity, resiliency, coverage, security, and operational readiness required to support current and future production needs.

Leadership & Portfolio Governance

Own the Manufacturing LAN planning portfolio and establish clear priorities across new programs, plant expansions, modernization, technology refresh, and operational risk-reduction initiatives. Lead and develop LAN planners while coordinating effectively with network engineering, wireless, cellular, cybersecurity, network operations, regional technology teams, and suppliers. Create transparent plans, milestones, dependencies, risks, escalation paths, and executive reporting that communicate network readiness and business impact. Manage supplier performance, resource capacity, statements of work, purchase-order requirements, financial tracking, and quality of planning deliverables. Facilitate governance and planning forums to ensure initiatives are prioritized, funded, resourced, and aligned with manufacturing and enterprise technology objectives. Balance competing priorities across business-critical launches, site operations, infrastructure lifecycle requirements, and network-risk remediation. Establish consistent planning standards, delivery methods, and performance expectations across plants, regions, and supplier teams.

Plant Network Planning & Delivery Readiness

Direct site assessments, requirements discovery, architecture reviews, site documentation, bill-of-material development, implementation planning, change-request preparation, trade coordination, and project handoff. Ensure plant plans incorporate all required network infrastructure elements, including MDF and IDF readiness, fiber and copper pathways, switching, wireless access points, power, space, environmental requirements, and operational prerequisites. Coordinate network readiness with construction schedules, production milestones, launch timing, plant access requirements, labor availability, and operational constraints. Work with site teams to identify risks and dependencies early, ensuring network-delivery plans are executable, sequenced appropriately, and aligned with plant business needs. Define acceptance criteria for network installations and require completion of installation validation, wireless coverage validation, documentation updates, asset records, and operational turnover before work is closed. Ensure site network designs and delivery plans consider maintainability, scalability, resiliency, security, monitoring, and long-term support requirements. Provide leadership and direction during plant launches, major cutovers, technology refreshes, and production-sensitive network changes.

Manufacturing Technology Enablement

Partner with Manufacturing, Plant IT, Engineering, and Operations stakeholders to understand connectivity requirements for plant-floor applications and connected assets. Plan network solutions supporting manufacturing test equipment, material movement systems, vehicles, mobile devices, industrial endpoints, automation technologies, and emerging digital capabilities. Ensure plant network plans address high availability, network segmentation, secure access, IP addressing, VLAN design, DHCP capacity, application dependencies, and wired and wireless coverage requirements. Coordinate indoor, outdoor, yard, and complex-area wireless needs, including coverage maps, certification surveys, capacity assumptions, roaming requirements, interference analysis, and device-growth forecasts. Ensure new manufacturing use cases are evaluated through appropriate architecture, wireless‑governance, cybersecurity, safety, and change‑management processes. Partner with network engineering and cybersecurity teams to align technical designs with enterprise standards, security policies, and manufacturing operational requirements. Translate network constraints, dependencies, and technical risks into clear business impacts, milestones, risks, and decisions.

Operational Resilience & Continuous Improvement

Review planned network changes for manufacturing risk, production impact, rollback readiness, validation requirements, operational support ownership, and recovery planning. Use incident, change, inventory, monitoring, capacity, and site‑readiness data to identify recurring issues and prioritize remediation efforts. Partner closely with Plant IT and Network Operations teams to support troubleshooting, critical‑issue response, production recovery, and lessons learned. Improve planning standards, reusable templates, automation, documentation quality, and delivery consistency across regions and suppliers. Drive continuous improvement in network planning, implementation readiness, risk management, supplier performance, and operational handoff processes. Ensure wired and wireless network capacity, coverage, resiliency, security, and observability are designed into plans before deployment rather than addressed reactively. Promote Ford+ behaviors through transparency, speed, technical excellence, accountability, collaboration, and customer-focused delivery.

Qualifications

We recognize that no one person will embody every single quality or skill listed below. If you are passionate about infrastructure delivery, manufacturing technology, operational resilience, and leading complex cross‑functional programs, we encourage you to apply.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, or a related discipline.
• Bachelor of Engineering preferred.
• Equivalent relevant experience may be considered.

Experience

• Minimum of 2–3 years of network engineering and network deployment experience, including planning, implementation, testing, troubleshooting, and operational handoff of wired and wireless network infrastructure.
• Minimum of 2–3 years of experience working within manufacturing facilities, industrial environments, plants, warehouses, or other production‑critical operations.
• Demonstrated experience leading infrastructure planning, network delivery, manufacturing IT, technical program management, or a comparable complex technical portfolio.
• Experience coordinating cross‑functional initiatives across Manufacturing, Facilities, construction trades, Plant IT, Cybersecurity, Architecture, Network Operations, engineering teams, and external suppliers.
• Experience managing multiple high‑priority initiatives in production‑sensitive or operationally critical environments.
• Experience with supplier management, scope control, financial tracking, resource planning, statements of work, and purchase‑order processes.
• Experience managing technical risks, dependencies, timelines, readiness reviews, escalations, and stakeholder communications.
• Strong leadership, organizational, financial, project‑management, and stakeholder‑management capabilities.
• Ability to influence without direct authority and build trusted relationships across business, technology, and operational organizations.

Required Technical Experience

• Strong working knowledge of enterprise wired LAN and wireless LAN planning and delivery.
• Understanding of switching, routing fundamentals, IP services, network segmentation, VLANs, DHCP, network access control, monitoring, and change‑management practices.
• Experience planning or supporting wired and wireless network infrastructure, including MDFs, IDFs, fiber and copper connectivity, switching, wireless access points, power, space, and environmental requirements.
• Experience supporting high‑availability, production‑critical network environments where service interruptions can affect safety, quality, production, or business continuity.
• Ability to evaluate and communicate network capacity, coverage, resiliency, security, monitoring, and operational‑support requirements.
• Experience coordinating wireless planning activities, including coverage surveys, capacity planning, roaming, interference mitigation, outdoor connectivity, and device‑growth planning.
• Ability to translate complex technical dependencies and constraints into clear business impacts, milestones, risks, and decisions.
• Experience with network change planning, validation, rollback readiness, operational turnover, and production‑impact assessments.

Preferred Experience

• Experience supporting automotive, industrial, or advanced‑manufacturing plants and new‑model, capacity‑expansion, or facility‑launch programs.
• Experience with software‑defined networking, high‑density industrial Wi‑Fi, network access control, network automation, and observability platforms.
• Experience supporting outdoor, yard, warehouse, logistics, or large‑scale industrial wireless connectivity.
• Familiarity with manufacturing applications, industrial endpoints, connected assets, automation technologies, and plant‑floor operational technology environments.
• Relevant technical or project certifications, such as Cisco, wireless networking, ITIL, PMP, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience using data, dashboards, reporting, or automation to improve infrastructure‑planning efficiency, operational visibility, and delivery outcomes.
• Experience working within a global, matrixed enterprise technology organization.

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, we encourage you to apply!

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, and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care, parental leave, new parent ramp‑up programs, subsidized back‑up child care 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 LL6.

This position is leadership level 6 and ranges from $132,800-$250,800.

Visa Sponsorship is not provided for this role

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 committed to a culturally diverse workforce. 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.