Senior Product Affordability Engineer

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

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental and vision coverage

Paid parental leave

Back-up child care

Tuition assistance

Vehicle discount program

Paid time off

Paid holidays

Job summary

Ford invites applications for a salary-grade 8 role located in Palo Alto, CA. The position requires a Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field and 5+ years in engineering, manufacturing, or supply chain roles. Visa sponsorship is available and candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.

Hybrid onsite four+ days per week. Salary ranges from $138,800 to $232,700, with base pay set within range based on experience and scope.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Engineering or a related technical discipline is required.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to turn data into decisions.
• Ability to collaborate with engineers, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with product and design engineers on vehicle decisions while options remain.
• Link product requirements to manufacturing, supply-chain realities, and economics.
• Offer constructive challenge using engineering judgment to drive better solutions.
• Develop cost models, benchmarks, supplier data, and market information for decision-making.
• Lead cross-functional affordability studies from questions to actionable alternatives.
• Create reusable models and tools to expand organizational capability.
• Shape how affordability is integrated into vehicle development, not only cost measurement.

Skills

Engineering problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Analytical thinking

Data-driven decision making

Communication with stakeholders

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Engineering or related

Job description

The most valuable affordability decisions happen before the design is finished. We are building a capability that brings engineering, manufacturing, supply-chain insight, economics, and data together early in product development, when there is still freedom to make a better choice.

This is an opportunity for a curious, technically grounded problem solver who wants to work across traditional boundaries. You may come from engineering, manufacturing, cost engineering, technical purchasing or supply chain, supplier development, industrialization, value engineering, or a combination of these. What matters most is the ability to understand how products are made, recognize what materially drives cost and value, and turn that understanding into better decisions.

What you'll do...

• Work alongside product and design engineers on meaningful vehicle decisions while alternatives are still open.
• Explore the connection between product requirements, design choices, manufacturing processes, supply-chain realities, and economics.
• Bring new perspectives and constructive challenge to established assumptions, using engineering judgment and facts to help teams find better solutions.
• Use cost models, benchmarks, supplier and market information, data, and digital tools at the level of detail needed for the decision at hand.
• Lead cross-functional affordability and value-engineering studies from an open question to a clear point of view and actionable alternatives.
• Turn complex or recurring questions into reusable models, data, methods, automation, or tools that expand the organization’s capability.
• Help shape how affordability is integrated into vehicle development, not simply how cost is measured after decisions are made.

You’ll have...

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Engineering or a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of progressive experience in engineering, manufacturing, technical purchasing/supply chain, supplier engineering, cost engineering, value engineering, or a related product-development field.
• A strong technical foundation and practical understanding of how products are designed and manufactured.
• Depth in at least one relevant engineering, manufacturing, supply-chain, supplier, value-engineering, or cost domain, combined with the curiosity to work well beyond that specialty.
• The ability to identify the few variables that matter most in a complex problem and develop a useful point of view without waiting for perfect information.
• Comfort working directly with engineers, suppliers, purchasing, manufacturing teams, and other stakeholders to turn analysis into decisions.
• An ownership mindset: you are energized by ambiguous problems, learn quickly, and can create a path where one does not already exist.\
• Analytical and digital fluency, with an interest in using data, modeling, automation, and emerging tools to solve problems at greater scale.

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.

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.