Technical Expert - Handles
Ford Motor CompanyAbout the role
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Product Development uses design thinking & user experience methods to deliver breakthrough products and services that delight our customers. We bring innovative, exciting, and sustainable ideas to life. We have opportunities around the world for you to contribute to advancements in autonomy, electrification, smart mobility technologies, and more!
This Technical Expert role within Closures & HLM, Vehicle Hardware Engineering, Body Exterior, is an individual contributor leadership role responsible for technical content, strategy and processes related to exterior closure handles, including exterior release handles (counterbalanced mechanical, fixed electrical, flush/deployable, etc.) and interior release handles. In this role, you will serve as the technical expert for all closure handle related matters, ensuring robust design and delivery of components and vehicle systems. You will lead all technical aspects of global product strategy, including product concept development, business case approval, supplier development, product development, verification & validation, launch/sign-off and ongoing support and quality assurance of products in the field. In addition, you will lead technical development of global team members, oversee foundation document creation and enforcement of prevent recurrence, guiding development of standardized tools, methods, and execution.
In this position...
- Act as technical architect for Closures & HLM handle system function on a global scale.
- Act as technical resource internally and externally on component and vehicle systems. Provide technical support to global teams.
- Interface closely with technical counterparts (fellow technical experts, core and component engineers and supervisors) to ensure robust system level understanding and execution, as well as issue read across/lessons learned cascade for the Closures & HLM organization.
What you'll do...
- Lead technical signoff of handle systems at critical engineering gateways.
- Lead development and ongoing maintenance of commodity specific standards, specifications, and verification methods.
- Lead development and deployment of all commodity foundation documents including DFMEAs, SCCAFs, Boundary Diagrams, P-Diagrams, DVP&R, and integration manuals.
- Recommend, develop, and verify applications for new and advanced designs.
- Analyze designs during the development process and address any potential failures and error states.
- Lead design of new concepts to improve system performance and provide leadership and support for timely implementation.
- Monitor and investigate new technologies to drive company to best-in-class quality, cost and function.
- Assist Global Chief Engineer and Closures & HLM management in the identification, resolution and presentation of department technical strategies, objectives, mission, and values.
- Guide and oversee training, mentoring and provide consulting to department engineers, supervisors, and other interfacing functions.
- Support Campaign Prevention activities for pertinent systems.
- Provide technical advice and support for handle system related matters to the Critical Concern Review Group (CCRG), the Automotive Safety Office (ASO), Office of General the Council (OGC) and Design Analysis teams.
- Construct and develop simple and complex business cases for various designs and commercial negotiations.
- Guide development of system tools, methods, and processes.
- Lead design reviews based on Failure Mode Avoidance (FMA).
- Lead supplier selection and development with cross-functional teams.
- Lead and drive prevent recurrence process for systems and components.
- Share and present work to cross-functional teams and executive leadership.
You'll have...
- Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or related field.
- Minimum 10 years total experience with 6 years in exterior closure handles design and release.
- Experience in automotive product development in all program phases, from pre-program through launch.
- Demonstrated technical expertise in closure handle system integration and development including architectural setup, kinematic analysis (travel/effort calculation and control methods, inertial calculations, complex mechanism design), Class A surface development and execution (studio interface), injection molding/high pressure die-casting, spring design, mechanical (membrane)/capacitive switch design, etc.
- Workin
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