Senior Embedded Controls Engineer, Body Controls

Ford; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 139,000 - 233,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

Prescription drugs

Family care days

Parental leave

Back-up childcare

Vehicle discount program

Tuition assistance

Employee resource groups

Paid time off

Paid holidays

Job summary

Ford Motor Company is seeking an experienced Embedded Controls Software Engineer to join our Body Controls team. The role focuses on design and implementation of body controls firmware, with ownership from prototype bring‑up to production in a safety‑critical environment.

You will develop real‑time C code for low‑voltage motors, actuators, sensors, and lighting, work with RTOS like FreeRTOS or AUTOSAR, and collaborate across hardware, software, and systems teams to deliver reliable vehicle

Qualifications

• Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience writing clean, efficient, and robust production‑grade C code for real‑time embedded systems, with MISRA C knowledge.
• Hands‑on experience with RTOS (e.g., FreeRTOS, SafeRTOS, OSEK/AUTOSAR) and bare‑metal environments.
• Strong low‑level debugging, hardware bring‑up, and optimization for timing/memory/power.
• 5+ years in electrical hardware applications, prototype bring‑up, and systems development.

Responsibilities

• Specify, design, and implement firmware architecture for body controls, from prototype bring‑up to high‑volume production.
• Develop control and estimation algorithms for body control features like windows and lighting.
• Lead design, integration, and validation of body controls hardware on test assets.
• Collaborate with software integration to translate requirements into hardware and system specs.
• Apply functional safety principles and participate in safety analyses for vehicle subsystems.
• Create and execute test plans to validate firmware across conditions, including low‑power modes.

Skills

C programming

MISRA C

RTOS

Hardware bring‑up

CAN/LIN/Automotive Ethernet

Debugging

Python scripting

Electrical test

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in EE/CS

Tools

FreeRTOS

OSEK/AUTOSAR

Baz es / CMake

Job description

Body systems play a critical role in delivering the customer experience across a wide range of vehicle features, hardware, and software. Our team develops and integrates controls for seats, tailgates, windows, latches, wipers, mirrors, sensing systems, interior and exterior lighting, and other low-voltage motor-driven systems across vehicle domains.

We work closely with Interior, Exterior, Low-Voltage Electrical Architecture, UI/UX, Systems, Hardware, and Software teams to deliver seamless, reliable, and intuitive end-to-end vehicle experiences.

We are seeking a highly skilled Embedded Controls Software Engineer to join our Body Controls team. The ideal candidate has a strong background in embedded software development for complex, distributed, safety-critical systems, with hands‑on experience developing device drivers and control strategies for low-voltage motors, actuators, sensors, and lighting systems.

What you'll do...

• Specify, design, and implement software architecture for body controls firmware, taking ownership of the software codebase from initial prototype bring‑up to high-volume production.
• Develop control and estimation algorithms for body control features such as window systems, closure systems, lighting, and other actuator‑based functions.
• Lead the design, integration, and validation of body controls hardware components on electrical test assets, including benches, bucks, lab cars, and vehicles.
• Collaborate with software integration teams to bring up core functions and translate software‑level requirements into electrical hardware and system requirements.
• Apply functional safety principles and participate in safety analyses for complex vehicle subsystems.
• Develop and execute comprehensive test plans to validate firmware functionality, stability, robustness, and performance across operating conditions, including low‑power modes.
• Drive body controls feature development cross‑functionally with hardware, software, architecture, systems, validation, and program teams.
• Author feature boundary diagrams, subsystem block diagrams, validation strategies, and technical documentation.
• Lead subsystem reviews across all phases of vehicle program development.
• Support early firmware development activities, including hardware validation, lab car testing, and automation framework development for unit, SIL, and HIL testing.

You'll have...

• Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or equivalent experience with evidence of exceptional ability.
• 5+ years of experience writing clean, efficient, and robust production‑grade C code for real‑time embedded systems, with a strong understanding of coding standards like MISRA C.
• Hands‑on experience developing with Real‑Time Operating Systems (RTOS) (e.g., FreeRTOS, SafeRTOS, OSEK/AUTOSAR) as well as bare‑metal embedded software environments.
• Strong experience in low‑level debugging, hardware bring‑up, and optimizing code for timing constraints, memory (RAM/Flash) footprint, and low‑power modes.
• 5+ years of experience in electrical hardware applications, prototype bring‑up, and systems development.
• 5+ years of experience with vehicle network protocols such as CAN, LIN, and Automotive Ethernet.
• Strong electrical engineering fundamentals and hands‑on experience with electrical test equipment, including oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, signal generators, power supplies, and related tools.
• 5+ years of experience using embedded networking interface tools in automotive, aerospace, or a similar embedded systems environment.
• Working knowledge of systems development, vehicle architecture, battery technologies, software and hardware tool development, motor calibration, OBD calibration, functional safety, networks, and diagnostics processes.
• Experience creating and executing component‑level test procedures and owning test results.

Even better, you may have...

• Highly collaborative mindset with strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience with driver development and RTOS integration.
• Experience with software build tools such as Bazel, SCons, CMake, or similar tools.
• Experience with fundamental PCB hardware components and related analysis tools.
• Ability to develop test scripts using scripting languages such as Python.
• Strong software fundamentals, including software design, maintainability, and code quality.
• Hands‑on experience with hardware bring‑up, system debugging, and code optimization.
• Knowledge of electrical engineering fundamentals, including circuit analysis and design.

Benefits

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 8 and ranges from $138,800-$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.

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

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. Candidates who are in commuting distance to a Ford hub location may be required to be onsite four or more days per week.