Embedded Controls Engineer, Thermal

Thermal systems span a diverse range of critical customer-facing attributes, hardware, and software domains. For example, our work keeps occupants comfortable, enables full vehicle powertrain capability, and empowers battery fast charging – in all weather conditions. We strive to balance heating/cooling performance, energy consumption, cost, reliability, NVH, and packaging trade-offs through physics-driven, cross-functional engineering collaboration. We work closely with mechanical engineers, aerodynamicists, battery and powertrain experts, electrical engineers, embedded/controls engineers, and more through all phases of vehicle development.

Your role: bridge the gap between what’s possible (models/simulation) and reality by building a world-class controls framework to deliver an exceptional customer experience in all situations that may arise.

• Create control/estimation algorithms to support a broad thermal management scope: climate control, battery, powertrain, heat pump/refrigeration system, car computers, and more.
• Deliver high-quality C code in a real-time embedded environment.
• Write unit, SIL, and HIL test cases to ensure proper functionality.
• Work closely with test and integration engineers to debug your control algorithms at the bench and vehicle level.
• Adapt or create reduced-order thermal systems models to suit control-focused development/refinement workflows.
• Collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and firmware engineers to execute control strategies.
• Develop fault detections and reaction strategies for seamless customer experience.
• Develop and continuously improve models to compare alternative control algorithms quantitatively across many key metrics (cost, efficiency, performance, complexity, etc.).
• Monitor fleet telemetry and use data analysis to close the loop on software quality and help ideate new software features.

• Master’s degree in electrical engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Computer Science, with evidence of exceptional ability, or equivalent
• 8+ years of experience in developing control algorithms and applying them to physical systems.
• High proficiency in programming experience using Python
• Strong foundational background in control theory, system dynamics, and model-based design.
• Highly collaborative mindset and strong communication skills
• Experience with JIRA/Confluence or a similar system for tracking inputs/results.
• Hands-on experience in hardware bring-up, system debugging, and code optimization.
• Knowledgeofelectrical engineering fundamentals including circuit analysis and design

• A strong understanding of linear systems, state-estimation/observers is a plus.
• Familiarity with thermal control algorithms, and experience implementing it on an embedded system.
• Familiarity with refrigeration systems (compressors, heat exchangers, valves, sensors, charge and oil management) and HVAC systems.
• Experience with automotive communication protocols and stacks (CAN, LIN, ethernet, UDS, etc.)
• Knowledge of microcontroller peripherals such as ADC, GPIO, PWM, and SPI, and experience in sensors and digital signal processing
• Experience with data management tools / using fleet data to guide design.
• Proficiency in C and C++ and scripting skills in at least one common language (Python, Perl, Shell)
• Experience developing control algorithms for thermal systems using modeling tools of various scales (Python, MATLAB/Simulink, or similar)

You may not check every box, or your experience may look a little different from what we've outlined, but if you think you can bring value to Ford Motor Company,

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