System Assurance Manager

Lincoln Motor Company; Dearborn (MI); Hybrid; USD 142,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Immediate medical, dental, vision, and

Prescription drug coverage

Paid parental leave

Vehicle discount program for employees

Tuition assistance

Paid time off for community service

Generous vacation time and holidays

Job summary

Ford Motor Company is seeking a senior leader to head Product Creation and Industrialization (PC&I) and grow a team responsible for system assurance across Ford and Lincoln programs. You will drive strategy, test planning, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver robust hardware and software systems.

This hybrid, leadership role requires 10+ years in system engineering or related technical roles, a related Bachelor's degree, and a proven track record of delivering high-quality, safe feature

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related engineering field.
• 10+ years in system engineering, software development, or automotive technical roles.
• Proven ability to define, develop, and optimize secure and safe vehicle systems.
• Excellent cross-functional communication and collaboration with partners and stakeholders.
• Strong leadership with mentoring and team development experience.
• Ability to think end-to-end about complex systems and drive strategy to production.
• Comfort with ambiguity and a system-wide approach to problem solving.
• Experience driving innovation, quality, and continuous improvement in engineering.

Responsibilities

• Grow your team and define strategies to deliver quality system assurance.
• Provide strategic leadership to the System Assurance Engineering team and drive test strategies.
• Own system launches across the global vehicle portfolio and integrate hardware/software solutions.
• Collaborate with product, verification, software, hardware, design, and quality teams to meet timelines.
• Provide technical guidance for triage and troubleshooting across system areas.
• Drive risk management, evaluative testing, and feedback into architecture teams.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives and communicate status to leadership.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Adaptability

Innovation

Continuous improvement

Communication

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field

Tools

Ford tools: AVBOM, WERS, AIMS, 8Ds, eFDVS, Jama, DFMEA, Six Sigma, Confluence, Jira

Job description

Product Creation and Industrialization (PC&I) brings together Ford’s vehicle, electric, digital and design teams with our global manufacturing system. Working as one end-to-end organization, we turn ideas into high-quality vehicles, software and experiences across gas, hybrid and electric, designed around what customers need.

In this position...

In this role you will be responsible to lead and grow a team to ensure systems such as netcom, power, and diagnostics across all Ford and Lincoln programs launch with perfection. You will ensure requirements align to test cases, develop test plans, execute “negative” testing, influence other test execution and systems teams. Reporting to the Director of FAST (Feature Assurance and Systems Troubleshooting) you will also have full authority to set and drive team strategies and align to department goals.

What you'll do...

• Grow system assurance: Grow your team, define strategies and processes to ensure delivery of quality systems. Align the rollout plan for system assurance to system requirements deliverables from requirements teams.

• Strategic leadership: Provide strategic direction and leadership to the System Assurance Engineering team, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and excellence. Design and drive test strategies into cross-organizational teams. Design, develop, and execute new “negative” test plans across all systems.

• System ownership: Responsible for the launch of systems across the global vehicle portfolio, ensuring partner teams create robust architecture, design, DFMEAs, and requirements and integrating hardware and software solutions together to a product on a program.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams (including product/program management, validation and verification, software, hardware, design, integration, feature, quality, and architecture) to drive execution to program timelines.

• Triage and troubleshooting: Provide technical guidance and expertise in system areas and work with feature and software partners. Apply a cross-functional vehicle- and system-level mindset to understand and help troubleshoot system operation.

• Quality assurance & risk management: Drive launch feedback into execution and partnered system design and architecture teams. Ensure the highest standards of design excellence, quality, and reliability through evaluative testing and reviewing verification results. Identify and mitigate technical risks and challenges associated with systems, proactively addressing issues to ensure successful delivery.

• Continuous improvement & communication: Drive continuous improvement initiatives to optimize system development and deployment processes, tools, and methodologies, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. Communicate project status, risks, and opportunities to executive leadership and stakeholders, providing regular updates and insights.

You’ll have...

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.

• Experience: 10+ years of hands‑on experience in system engineering, software development, or related technical roles within the automotive industry, demonstrating a deep understanding of software and hardware systems.

• Technical expertise: Proven expertise in defining, developing, and optimizing secure and safe systems for vehicles, including a comprehensive understanding of system architecture, integration, verification processes, and performance requirements specific to automotive applications.

• Communication & collaboration: Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to effectively engage with cross-functional teams, external partners, and stakeholders to drive successful feature system development projects.

• Leadership: Proven leadership abilities, with a track record of mentoring and guiding technical teams, fostering innovation, and delivering high-quality feature systems that meet safety, security, and performance objectives.

• Strategic & systemic thinking: Demonstrated ability to comprehend end-to-end systems of systems, apply systemic thinking, critical thinking, and strategic reasoning to identify opportunities, rapidly understand complex concerns, provide alternative solutions, and drive strategy from concept through to production.

• Adaptability: Comfort with ambiguity, with a demonstrated ability to structure an approach to complex problems and drive clarity on solutions.

• Innovation: Understand and drive innovation and change in processes, engineering excellence, quality, and efficiency.

• Continuous improvement mindset: A drive for a system approach to design and development, coupled with a desire and curiosity to strive for exceptional delivery execution and continuous improvement.

Even better, you may have...

• Education: Master’s degree in a technical or Management field.

• Experience:

• 15+ years of experience in automotive electrical systems.

• 5+ years in people management.

• Experience launching new vehicles with a track record of achieving plant quality targets.

• Ford-specific knowledge: Mastery of product development deliverables and Ford engineering tools (AVBOM / WERS / AIMS / 8Ds / eFDVS, Jama / Engineering Sign Off / DFMEA / Six Sigma / Confluence and Jira applications).

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 5 and ranges from $141,700-$215,000.

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.

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