HIL Electrical Systems Engineer

Ford's Research & Advanced Engineering team is defining the next generation of Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) infrastructure, and we're looking for the engineer who will help shape it. You'll collaborate across multiple Ford organizations, from research and advanced engineering to production, working with suppliers to specify, design, and bring to life a platform built to serve Ford's verification and validation needs for years to come.

This is a role where you'll shift verification and validation (V&V) left, explore new HIL use cases, and push into capabilities that go well beyond traditional HIL boundaries — all in a flexible, innovative environment where you'll be building capability that does not exist at Ford today.

You will be the electrical design authority for these benches: architecting I/O and signal conditioning strategy, designing wire harnesses and custom PCBs, integrating simulator platforms with real ECUs and dynamometer hardware, and bringing new configurations up from bare enclosure to a fully communicating system. Successful candidates will be comfortable moving between schematic capture, an oscilloscope, and a supplier technical review in the same week, and will have a track record of driving hardware projects independently from concept through production.

• Design and architect new HIL system configurations for powertrain and electrification programs, including enclosure layout, I/O strategy, signal conditioning, power distribution, fault insertion, and interface control documentation
• Author technical requirements, statements of work, and evaluation criteria for HIL hardware and software procurement; support supplier selection and technical design reviews, and coordinate delivery across research, advanced engineering, and production organizations
• Design, build, and validate wire harnesses and electrical cable assemblies connecting HIL simulators to ECUs, sensors, actuators, and powertrain/dynamometer subsystems, and own the supporting electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, and harness documentation from connector and pinout definition through routing, shielding, and continuity verification
• Design, lay out, and validate custom circuits for signal conditioning, load simulation, and interface adaptation used in HIL, Vehicle-in-the-Loop (ViL), Hybrid Power Pack-in-the-Loop (HPiL), and dyno test environments
• Configure and integrate HIL platforms — including dSPACE SCALEXIO, Speedgoat, or NI Veri Stand — to support powertrain and electrification test objectives, maintaining backward compatibility across platform migrations so that existing test assets and harnesses remain fully functional through hardware and software transitions
• Implement and validate I/O circuits for analog voltage/current, PWM, frequency, digital I/O, and high-speed automotive communication networks (CAN, CAN-FD, LIN, Automotive Ethernet)
• Perform component-level and system-level debugging across HIL benches, including signal tracing, oscilloscope analysis, CAN/Ethernet protocol analysis, and ECU communication diagnostics
• Support bring-up and commissioning of new bench configurations, including power cycling validation, network bring-up, ECU flashing, and initial communication verification
• Research and evaluate emerging HIL platforms, tools, and simulation methodologies; recommend improvements aligned with Ford's electrification roadmap and Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) architecture evolution

• Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, or closely related discipline
• 5+ years' experience designing, building, and validating HIL or embedded electronic test systems
• 3+ years' experience with automotive electronic control systems…