Studio Liaison Engineer

Position: Studio Liaison Engineer - Seats
Job Description

We made history and now we work to transform the future - for our customers, our communities and our families. You'll see your work on the road every day, helping people move freely and pursue their dreams. At Ford, you can build more than vehicles. Come build what matters.

Are you a highly collaborative and technically astute individual with a passion for both innovative design and robust engineering? Ford Motor Company is seeking a dynamic Studio Liaison for Seat Subsystems to join our product development team in the USA.

In this pivotal role, you will serve as the crucial link between our creative Design Studio and our engineering teams, specifically focusing on seat subsystems. Your primary mission will be to translate artistic vision into feasible engineering solutions, ensuring that all CAD concepts developed by the creative team not only capture the desired aesthetic and user experience but also fully comply with all engineering requirements, functional specifications, regulatory standards, critical cost targets, and the strategic imperatives for modular design and maximum part reuse across vehicle lines.

You will also be instrumental in analyzing competitive benchmarks to inspire and inform our design and engineering strategies.

You will champion the engineering, cost-effectiveness, and strategic product lifecycle perspectives within the design process, facilitate effective communication, and proactively identify and resolve potential conflicts between design intent, technical feasibility, budget constraints, and strategic goals early in the development cycle. This is an exciting opportunity to influence the very essence of vehicle interiors, working cross-functionally to deliver world-class seat subsystems that embody beauty, precision, financial discipline, and forward-thinking product architecture.

Responsibilities

• Act as the primary technical liaison between the Design Studio and the Seat Subsystems engineering teams, ensuring seamless communication and understanding of design intent and engineering requirements.
• Review and analyze CAD concepts developed by the creative team for seat subsystems, ensuring full compliance with engineering specifications, packaging constraints, manufacturing feasibility, regulatory standards, established program cost targets, and the principles of modularity and part reuse.
• Proactively identify potential engineering challenges, risks, non-compliance issues, or cost target deviations within design concepts and collaborate with both design and engineering teams to develop innovative, viable, cost-effective, and modular solutions that leverage existing part commonality where appropriate.
• Translate complex engineering requirements, cost implications, and strategic objectives for modularity and reuse into clear, actionable feedback for the Design Studio, guiding the refinement of CAD models to meet technical and financial criteria without compromising design vision.
• Facilitate regular design reviews, technical discussions, and problem-solving sessions between design and engineering stakeholders for seat subsystems.
• Contribute to the documentation of lessons learned and best practices related to design integration, cost management, modularity, part reuse, and competitive analysis, cascading knowledge to both design and engineering core teams.
• Coordinate extensively with various cross-functional teams, including Studio, Seat Complete, Seat Structure, Seat Features, Craftsmanship, Suppliers, Purchasing, Finance, and Program teams, to ensure holistic integration of seat subsystem designs that meet all requirements, including cost, and align with our modularity and reuse strategies.
• Champion the balance between aesthetic appeal, ergonomic excellence, engineering integrity, cost-effectiveness, and strategic product architecture (modularity, part reuse) throughout the product development lifecycle for seat subsystems.
• Analyze competitive seat subsystem designs and technologies to identify best practices, emerging trends, and opportunities for differentiation and improvement.
• Familiarity with principles of design for modularity, commonality, and part reuse.
• Ability to conduct competitive benchmarking and derive actionable insights.

Qualifications

You'll have...

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering3+ years of overall experience
• Excellent communication skills
• Exceptional graphical communication skills (sketching, rendering, digital modeling) to convey technical and design concepts effectively
• Proven ability to explain complex engineering concepts, cost implications, and strategic benefits of modularity/reuse clearly and concisely to non-technical audiences, particularly within a creative design environment

Even better, you may have...

• Proactive, disciplined, and highly collaborative approach to work
• Strong networking and relationship-building skills across diverse functional teams
• Self-accountable for delivering high-quality outcomes and ensuring design compliance, cost adherence, and…