Senior Manager, Motor Controls

At Ford Motor Company, we believe freedom of movement drives human progress. We also believe in providing you with the freedom to define and realize your dreams! With our incredible plans for the future of mobility, we have a wide variety of opportunities for you to accelerate your career potential as you help us define tomorrow’s transportation.

Ford Model E is responsible for developing the key technologies and capabilities – such as EV platforms, batteries, e-motors, inverters, charging and recycling – to create ground-up, breakthrough electric vehicles. By joining the best software, engineering, design and UX talent, you will be part of a team creating new technologies and concepts that can be applied across the Ford enterprise. Being on the Ford Model E team means building the future as Ford’s center of innovation and growth through electric and connected vehicles and services.

The motor controls senior manager will guide the development of advanced control algorithms for automotive power electronics traction inverter systems to optimize performance and efficiency. They will implement novel control strategies for sensorless thermal motor controls, resolver calibration, efficient pump controls, and low oil sensing. They will also stay informed of industry trends, support validation and testing activities, and contribute to technology roadmaps and customer-facing attributes.

What you’ll be able to do:

• Lead and manage team of controls and software engineers for drive inverter and power electronics control unit development.
• Help define and drive program software and controls schedules.
• Define hiring plans and manage hiring of technical staff.
• Develop controls and software architectures.
• Develop and implement control algorithms for automotive power electronics traction inverter systems, ensuring optimal performance and efficiency.
• Implement novel controls strategies around sensorless thermal motor controls, resolver calibration, efficient pump controls, low oil sensing, mitigation of bearing arching and motor partial discharge phenomenon.
• Develop high-quality firmware for traction inverter and power electronic systems. Firmware will be enabled to support continuous improvements and optimizations for high-volume applications through over-the-air (OTA) updates.
• Develop detailed control system models to verify algorithms in both simulated and hardware-in-the-loop environments.
• Participate in inverter hardware selection and optimization for durability, efficiency, and performance.
• Develop block and system diagrams to showcase interactions between subsystems.
• Develop, analyze and interpret system requirements and develop technical specifications for control system components, ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations, and correlated analytical models.• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate control strategies with hardware and software components, and validate system functionality through simulation and testing.
• Identify and track key system decisions that establish technology roadmaps and customer facing attributes.
• Utilize necessary tools such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, frequency response analyzers to bring-up and test controls on target hardware.
• Lead troubleshooting and root cause analysis efforts to identify and resolve control system-related issues, and implement corrective actions to improve system performance and reliability.
• Stay current with industry trends and advancements in control theory, power electronics, and automotive technologies, and apply this knowledge to enhance control system designs and functionalities.
• Support the development of validation and verification plans.
• Participate in testing and validation activities to ensure control system performance and safety requirements are met.

The minimum requirements we seek:

• Electrical Engineering or Physics Degree
• Sound knowledge of power electronics and control theory.
• Experience designing and optimizing controls for motor inverters, chargers, DCDCs, or similar mass-produced automotive grade power electronic products.
• 5+ years of experience designing, developing, and releasing products.
• 5+ years of experience in leadership role in motor controls development.

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience coding control algorithms and inverter applications in embedded C.
• Experience modeling control systems using MATLAB/Simulink, PLECS or similar.
• Strong power electronics and digital controls background, particularly in motor drive applications, DCDC, and or chargers.
• Deep understanding of electric drive and motor control concepts for permanent magnet AC machines.
• Knowledge