Supervisor, Electrical Distribution Systems (EDS) Design & Release

Ford; Dearborn (MI); Hybrid; USD 116,000 - 218,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Paid parental leave

Vehicle discount program for employees

Tuition assistance

Paid time off and holidays

Job summary

Ford Design seeks an EDS Design and Release Supervisor to lead wiring-system development for Ford vehicles. You will own the subsystem, manage design trade-offs, and drive release, validation, and supplier engagement to meet program timing.

The role emphasizes robust design verification, cross-functional leadership, and delivery of high-quality electrical distributions for multiple vehicle programs. Hybrid work with four onsite days is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Automotive Engineering, or closely related field.
• 5+ years of automotive Electrical Distribution System (EDS) and/or wire-harness design experience.
• Experience supporting at least one full vehicle program launch through production.
• 3+ years of wire-harness or electrical-distribution-system design and release activities.

Responsibilities

• Lead the EDS design and release team to meet quality, cost, weight, and timing objectives.
• Cascade and manage program targets; assess trade-offs and report risks to the Program team.
• Ensure adherence to design-development practices, including FMEA, DVPR, and PPAP readiness.
• Lead sign-off for program milestones and maintain BOM accuracy for wire harness releases.

Skills

EDS/wiring design

Leadership

System-level thinking

FMEA/DVPR

Cross-functional collaboration

JIRA/AIMS

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering

Master’s degree (preferred)

Tools

JIRA

FEDEBOM

Teamcenter/3DX

CATIA

Job description

Product Development uses design thinking & user experience methods to deliver breakthrough products and services that delight our customers. We bring innovative, exciting, and sustainable ideas to life.We have opportunities around the world for you to contribute to advancements in autonomy, electrification, smart mobility technologies, and more!

Join us in shaping the future of Ford Motor Company, as part of a global organization with exceptional colleagues in world-class facilities. As part of Ford Design, you’ll be at the cutting edge of Ford’s most strategically critical work, designing people and society’s needs into the heart of our next generation of products, services, and experiences.

In this position:

The EDS Design and Release Supervisor leads the team in delivering wiring systems that meet quality, cost, weight, functional, and timing objectives and are successfully integrated into the vehicle system. The supervisor manages design trade-offs, maintains a customer-focused mindset, and supports corporate objectives. As the business owner for electrical wiring, the supervisor is accountable for the subsystem’s overall performance and delivery.

What you'll do...

Tasks/Responsibilities

• Ensure the team meets program objectives for Quality, Cost, Weight, Function, and Timing, including current-model objectives and Six Sigma strategies.
• Cascade, manage, and optimize program targets; assess technical trade-offs among competing objectives and report risks and opportunities to the Program team at designated milestones.
• Ensure adherence to quality-improvement and design-development practices, including FMEA, DVPR, quality history, prevention of recurrence, SDS, design guides, test procedures, and robust design verification and validation.
• Ensure product designs satisfy functional and customer requirements, and support closure of systemic issues related to EDS function.
• Lead resolution of wiring issues using applicable systems and processes (e.g., DEMS and JIRA).
• Lead EDS sign-off for program milestones, including UNVx, UPVx, FDJ, TDJ, PEC, and FEC.
• Drive subsystem and component design, release, and validation to meet production tooling and vehicle launch timing.
• Facilitate effective engineering and cross-functional decisions through Functional and VHM meetings; support Program meetings with current status and feasibility assessments.
• Follow the ED&T approval process to maintain program timing.
• Maintain PDL and BOM accuracy for all wire harness releases and oversee program-specific systems such as FEDEBOM and Integrator.
• Support EDS-related JIRA/AIMS, WERS, and OTG processes; communicate upcoming program milestone events.
• Review and approve proposed supplier-initiated changes (SREAs), ensuring applicable PPAP requirements are met.

Process

• Manage the team budget and EDS ED&T to deliver FSS and in-house design programs.
• Assign and align team objectives with the organization’s strategic priorities.
• Coordinate technical forums to advance team and organizational objectives.
• Enforce product-creation discipline through effective design, reliability, and robustness reviews, with emphasis on robust design verification.
• Consistently apply the problem-solving and root cause analysis tools demonstrated in the BoK training, while ensuring the team understands and adheres to these practices.
• Support GPDS supplier engagement to achieve cost and quality objectives, deliver engineering requirements, and ensure launch and industrialization readiness.

People

• Establish and uphold the team’s technical standards, ensuring engineers meet them.
  Provide training, mentoring, and ongoing development to strengthen the team’s technical knowledge and capability.
• Lead, guide, support, and teach team members to promote professional and technical growth.

You'll have...

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Automotive Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of automotive Electrical Distribution System (EDS) and/or wire-harness design experience.
• Experience supporting at least one full vehicle program launch through production, including design development, validation, release, manufacturing readiness, or launch support.
• 3+ years of direct experience with wire-harness or electrical-distribution-system design and release activities, such as component design, engineering release, change management, BOM ownership, validation, or issue resolution.
• Demonstrated experience in at least two of the following areas:
  • Vehicle manufacturing or assembly support
  • Product testing or design validation
  • Vehicle launch support
  • Supplier quality, engineering, or change-management activities
• 5+ year of experience leading technical work across internal engineering teams, manufacturing, program teams, and/or suppliers.
• Experience using structured problem-solving methods to identify root cause, implement corrective actions, and prevent recurrence of technical or quality issues.
• Experience leading technical work across suppliers and internal cross-functional partners
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple engineering deliverables simultaneously, including tracking timing, identifying risks, resolving issues, and escalating concerns to appropriate stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience coaching, mentoring, training, or providing technical direction to other engineers
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated ability to present technical status, risks, trade-offs, and recommended actions to cross-functional and leadership audiences.

Even better, you may have...

• Master’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Automotive Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Previous experience as a people manager, engineering supervisor, technical lead, or work-package lead within an automotive engineering environment.
• Experience working within Ford vehicle-program development processes, including familiarity with:
  • Global Product Development System (GPDS)
  • Worldwide Engineering Release System (WERS)
  • Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP)
  • Production Part Approval Process (PPAP)
  • Supplier engagement, engineering change, and launch-readiness processes
• Familiarity with Ford engineering systems and tools, including Teamcenter Engineering, 3DX, FEDEBOM, JIRA, AIMS, Digital Buck, and CATIA or comparable 3D design and data-management tools.
• Experience applying automotive quality and design-development methods, including Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Design Verification Plan and Report (DVPR), root-cause analysis, quality-history reviews, and robust design verification practices.
• Experience leading or coordinating work performed by external suppliers, engineering service providers, or outsourced product-development teams.
• Experience supporting supplier-led design, validation, industrialization, engineering changes, and launch activities for automotive electrical-distribution or wire-harness systems

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
• 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
• Generous vacation time, sick/personal time, and paid holidays, including between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day

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.

Internal applicants: moving into this role may result in an adjustment to your current compensation based on the posted pay range for this role, taking into consideration your qualifications and other relevant factors.

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.

This position is hybrid with a requirement to be onsite four or more days per week. #LI-Hybrid #VehicleHardwareEngineering #LI-KD1