Director, Hardware Engineering & Integration - ATP

Do you want to change the world? Ford Motor Company has endured and thrived for more than 120 years by reimagining how things are built. Today, Ford is leading a once-in-a-generation transformation in manufacturing: scaling EVs and integrating robotics, additive, AI vision, and digital platforms into one operating system, built on the Ford Production System (FPS) and its digital layer, FPS+.

Ford runs more than 19,700 robots across 56 plants worldwide. The next step is to make every new robot, vision cell, and printer faster and cheaper to bring on line, and to own the hardware that makes Ford's automation Ford's.

ATP's robotics strategy is to own the bookends and buy the middle. Ford owns the top layer (the plant ontology, the safety envelope, test and certification, and data rights) and the tool end (end effectors, tooling, and task models). The robot body in the middle is bought and swappable. Between those bookends sits the hardware ATP designs and the integration work that gets every cell running in a plant.

Today that hardware lives with a few teams, and integration is split across controls, launch, and virtual commissioning groups, with much of it bought from outside integrators. Integration is now the largest share of what it costs to deploy a cobot. This role brings both together: one director who owns the hardware ATP designs and the method that integrates and commissions it, plant after plant.

As Director, Hardware Engineering & Integration, ATP, you will report to the ATP vertical leader for Forge, Print and Global Operations. You will:

• Own engineering of ATP-owned hardware: end effectors and tooling, edge compute and enclosures, test cells for ATP's robot test and certification facility (Robo Gym), and cable and wire-harness standards.

• Own the integration and commissioning method: virtual commissioning, factory and site acceptance testing, controls integration, and the standard work that makes each deployment repeatable.

• Lead ATP's integration and build team, a shared crew that installs and commissions robots, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and vision cells, and grow in-house capability that reduces reliance on outside integrators.

• Own the device readiness standard that suppliers of robots, AMRs, printers, and vision systems must meet: drivers, manifests, data interfaces, and safety documentation.

• Hand designs to TDM, Ford's prototype and manufacturing subsidiary, ready for manufacture so ATP hardware scales from prototype to production.

• Partner with the Forge-X humanoid program lead, Core controls engineering, and the Forge, Sight, and Print verticals.

• Lead design and validation of end effectors, grippers, and tooling for Ford's highest-volume robotic applications.

• Own edge compute hardware and enclosures that connect plant equipment to the Ford platform.

• Build and maintain the Robo Gym test cells where third-party robots are qualified against Ford's standard before they reach a plant.

• Set cable and wire-harness standards and build in-house harnessing capability so prototypes reach production quality without repeated rework.

• Set one commissioning method across ATP: risk assessment, virtual commissioning, factory acceptance, site acceptance, and handover to the plant.

• Integrate robots and cells with plant controls (PLC, safety PLC, HMI) and industrial networks (PROFINET, Ether Net/IP, OPC UA).

• Drive down cost and cycle time per deployment through standard designs, reusable controls templates, and lessons-learned loops.

• Train and certify plant and ATP engineers so plants can integrate, program, and maintain ATP technology in house.

• Define what every supplier device must ship with: a driver, a manifest, a data interface to the Ford platform, and safety documentation.

• Align fleet and AMR suppliers to open interface standards such as VDA 5050, and printer and vision suppliers to Ford's device standard.

• Run the qualification path with Robo Gym so new equipment is tested once and approved for every plant.

• Write integration terms into sourcing so suppliers carry their share of integration effort.

• Design ATP hardware for manufacture from the start: cost, tolerances, serviceability, and supplier readiness.

• Package designs, documentation, and test plans so TDM builds without redesign.

• Plan volumes and second sources for…