IVI Hardware Architecture - Technical Specialist

Ivi Hardware Architecture
- Technical Specialist

Ford's Electric Vehicles, Digital and Design (EVDD) team is charged with delivering the company's vision of a fully electric transportation future. EVDD is customer-obsessed, entrepreneurial, and data-driven and is dedicated to delivering industry-leading customer experience for electric vehicle buyers and owners. You'll join an agile team of doers pioneering our EV future by working collaboratively, staying focused on only what matters, and delivering excellence day in and day out.

Join us to make positive change by helping build a better world where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams.

The IVI Hardware Architecture
- Technical Specialist is a senior, hands-on individual-contributor role responsible for the hardware architecture, technical direction, and engineering maturity of Ford in-vehicle infotainment electronic control units and their key electrical interfaces. The Technical Specialist provides deep expertise in high-performance automotive compute hardware, including power delivery, processing, memory, storage, display, connectivity, thermal, and high-speed vehicle-network interfaces.

The role defines and governs hardware requirements, architecture decisions, design reviews, validation expectations, and technical issue resolution for IVI hardware programs. Working with Ford engineering teams, suppliers, systems engineering, software, validation, quality, and vehicle electrical architecture teams, this individual ensures IVI hardware designs are robust, manufacturable, validated, and ready for production, and serves as the final technical sign-off for hardware design and pre- and post-test validation before release.

The Technical Specialist is expected to interpret schematics and PCB layouts, evaluate circuit and system behavior, support hands-on laboratory investigation when needed, and lead resolution of complex hardware and cross-domain issues from concept through launch and post-launch quality support.

What you'll do...

• Own the hardware architecture and technical direction for IVI ECU platforms and their interfaces to displays, vehicle networks, power modes, connectivity modules, and associated vehicle electronics.
• Serve as the final technical sign-off for IVI ECU hardware release, approving hardware design and pre- and post-test validation before production.
• Define hardware-level and system-level requirements, interface specifications, architecture principles, design constraints, and validation methods for internal teams and external suppliers.
• Lead technical reviews of schematics, PCB layouts, component selections, power architectures, thermal approaches, high-speed interfaces, and design-validation evidence.
• Evaluate hardware capability and margin for processor, memory, storage, display, connectivity, power, thermal, and network workloads.
• Provide expert technical guidance for ECU boot, wake/sleep, power sequencing, network management, reliability, performance, and hardware/software interaction.
• Lead or support hands-on lab investigations of complex board-, ECU-, and vehicle-level failures using appropriate electrical, thermal, network, and diagnostic tools.
• Review WCCA strategy and results, identify design risks, and drive mitigations with responsible design and supplier teams.
• Define and approve hardware validation, integration, robustness, EMC, environmental, and production-readiness expectations.
• Lead technical root-cause investigations and corrective actions for significant hardware and cross-functional issues using structured methods such as 8D, fishbone, fault-tree analysis, and FMEA.
• Provide technical leadership to suppliers and internal design teams; assess design maturity and provide technical recommendations for gateway, milestone, and release decisions.
• Ensure IVI hardware designs support applicable cybersecurity, functional-safety, EMC, environmental, regulatory, manufacturing, and service requirements.

You'll have...

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in automotive electronic hardware design, design and release, or electrical/electronic architecture, including work on cockpit, infotainment, connectivity, modem, gateway, or other complex vehicle ECU hardware.
• Demonstrated experience defining hardware architecture, electrical and system requirements, interface specifications, and validation strategies for automotive ECUs, and leading technical design reviews through production.
• Strong ability to read, interpret, and technically review schematics, PCB layouts, data sheets, and validation reports, with deep knowledge of high-performance compute ECU hardware — processors/SoCs, memory and storage interfaces (LPDDR, eMMC/UFS), power delivery and sequencing, thermal management, signal/power integrity, and high-speed vehicle interfaces (Automotive Ethernet, CAN/CAN FD, LIN, USB, PCIe, display).
• Proven…