Product Development Engineer - Exterior Underbody Structure Architecture

Exterior Underbody Structure Architecture Engineer

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.

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!

In this position...

An engineering role within the Exterior Underbody Structure Architecture team, reporting to a Structures Architecture Supervisor. The engineer is responsible for developing technical content, strategy, and processes for exterior underbody structural systems including frames, subframes, body mounts, front end structure, floor structure, bumper beams, tow hitches, tow recovery systems, EV battery structures, and associated hardware required for underbody functional interface. In this role, you will work as part of a team to support exterior advanced architecture by defining robust underbody structure design solutions, assuring quality performance, and delivering target designs for underbody structure components and systems.

This position collaborates across product development, manufacturing, suppliers, and core engineering to support product and technology development, supplier sourcing inputs, design analytical verification aligned to production requirements, and implementation of quality assurance through FMA methodology.

What you'll do...

• Work within the Exterior Underbody Structure Architecture team to develop and deliver engineering work products that support robust exterior system design solutions.
• Lead & ensure successful alignment of Underbody Structure KPIs including Quality, Cost, Weight & Functional Performance for major programs prior to the Strategic Confirmation milestone.
• Derive efficient underbody structure system design solutions aligned to program scope definition, technology readiness and capability, and affordable program targets for cost and TFLE.
• Create underbody structure systems fundamental design definitions aligned to attribute performance targets and manufacturing feasibility through systemic analysis of interactions between interfacing components and systems.
• Utilize customer-based data, Quality History, prior issues Prevent recurrence, and reliability & robustness methods to define FMEA action items tied to fundamental underbody architecture execution affiliated with each program.
• Mature underbody structure design from surrogate or concept designs to align with applicable architecture with continuous focus on failure mode avoidance.
• Deliver robust architecture design recommendations, with defined fixed and variable parameters, to support on-time program milestones with quality.
• Build strong relationships and collaborate with Flexible Vehicle Architecture, Design Technical Operations, Manufacturing, and Supplier partners.
• Communicate underbody structure architectural issues, trade-offs, risks, and recommendations with the supervisor, management, and cross-functional partners.
• Construct & develop relevant business cases for system selection alignment that offer proper support of program and corporate EBIT.
• Support your supervisor and broader team in end-to-end underbody structure architecture development through technical analysis, target alignment, issue resolution, and design maturity tracking.
• Ability to share & present work with cross-functional teams, Exterior Applications engineering teammates, and executive leadership with professionalism tied to technical data and facts.
• Collaborate with structures core engineering for recent lessons learned via tech club and other forums.
• Responsible for defining architecture design executions that meet/exceed quality targets, such as Safety, NVH, stiffness, and supply-base controls.
• Integrate Structural Systems TVM actions into forward models…