Director, Technical Program Management

About Ford

The Ford Motor Company had endured and thrived for 120 years – through every imaginable challenge – because we have the vision to imagine the future and the courage to change. Ford is redefining how it will build a better world for the future by creating a culture and opportunities where employees will capitalize on Ford’s excellence in designing and building the most iconic products while also helping develop the future of world-class connected BEVs. Ford is transforming our global automotive business to scale EVs, strengthen operations, and unlock value. We will deliver the speed of a startup, with the deep expertise of high-volume production. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. We call this new business focused on connected digital vehicles, Model e.

At Model e, we were inspired by the success of small, mission-driven Ford teams that developed the Mustang Mach-E SUV and F-150 Lightning™ pickup, as well as Ford’s dedicated EV division in China. Similarly, dedicated teams within Model e will create the software platforms and fully networked vehicle architectures to support delightful, always-on, and ever-improving vehicles and experiences that will allow us to deliver over 50% of our total sales in BEV and 33 million connected vehicles by 2030. We are building a team of the world’s best software, electrical, and automotive talent and turning them loose to create insanely great electric vehicles and digital experiences for new generations of customers. These changes in our business will allow us the greatest opportunity to create value and serve customers since Henry Ford scaled the Model T.

What will it be like to work on the Model e team?

We are passionate about solving hard problems. We create with passion delivering extraordinary solutions to change the world. We challenge… competitors, bureaucracy, obstacles, and even our own assumptions. We have zero tolerance for bias or personal agendas. We are swift and decisive… trusting the experts, believing the data, seeking out and listening to bold intuition – regardless of the source. We are insurgents… never satisfied, averse to complexity, suspicious of habits, and open to risk. We constantly learn. We focus on the mission and deliver with urgency and speed. We are an agile team… leveraging rapidly evolving technology to innovate, fail fast, and pivot. We trust each other, surface issues openly, and solve problems collaboratively. Most importantly we raise the talent bar with every hire.

Responsibilities

• Define Service Level agreements between clients (consumers) and providers
• Make trade-off recommendations that optimize for the overall program success
• Lead the design and implementation of software of embedded devices and systems from requirements. design, development, coding, and validation
• Analyzes maturity of work backlog on Jira, with a clear definition of done, the capabilities it relates to, planning when each item is needed, and bundling items to releases
• Drive teams that focus on the higher level of the SW stack to improve user experience
• Helps with diagnosis of challenges and technical issues and ensures a path of closure of these items with respective stakeholders
• Partners with the product manager, engineering lead, and other internal stakeholders to develop and manage a comprehensive program plan including schedule, cross-functional dependencies, and risk elements, and communicate status/progress and risks to all the program stakeholders
• Working with platform DRI’s to synchronize deliverables and expectations with external suppliers
• Coordinates delivery timeline per agreed objectives and milestones for every Saga and user stories
• Interface with the hardware design team
• Collaborates with cross-functional teams of systems, software engineering, and vehicle programs for strategizing what functionality the platform supports in each build, defining an agreement to what a platform team builds in each PI, and ensuring the steps for execution from system design, software development, and test
• Integrate solutions with existing embedded systems components
• Improve the quality of products and development velocity
• Perform roadmap planning with customer experience and feature teams. Ensure deliveries meet vehicle milestones.
• Create dashboards to identify platform health and risks. Communicate status to senior executives.
• Works closely with system test leads to formulate a system integration and test plan for different pieces of the platform

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in leading and managing large projects, interacting with internal and external customers
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Computer Science
• 5+ years experience in documenting designs and presenting to C-level executives.
• 5+ years experience in program/product management
• 2+ years experience in managing budgets and ensuring projects are within budget.

Preferred Qualifications

• Expert level knowledge in agile as well as traditional project management methodologies, with the ability to combine and develop hybrid tools to drive project and team success
• Demonstrated success in working in a boundaryless manner and delivering results through cross-functional, cross-organizational collaboration
• 10+ years of experience in program/product management managing large, company-wide and external, complex cross-functional programs
• Ability to clearly identify and articulate project status to executives, identify complex blockers, and work with a sense of urgency to mitigate unexpected issues, when they arise
• 5+ years in Jira experience, SAFe, requirements, and test management methodologies
• 7+ years of experience in working directly with engineering, and product and supporting business teams in launching new products
• Intellectually curious with a passion for learning and development for yourself and others abilities
• Comfortable working in a 100% remote and globally distributed team and willing to travel as/when needed in support of the program

What You'll Receive In Return

As part of the Ford family, you’ll enjoy excellent compensation and a comprehensive benefits package that includes generous PTO, retirement, savings and stock investment plans, incentive compensation, and much more. You will experience a “Work from Anywhere” structure and the support needed to be successful in a remote environment. You’ll also experience exciting opportunities for professional and personal growth and recognition.

Ford Motor Company is an equal-opportunity employer committed to a culturally diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status.

Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a permanent basis. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at time of hire. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.