Description

Job Description

What you’ll be able to do:

With the Vehicle Hardware Engineering Ford College Graduate (FCG) program, you’ll discover unmatched opportunities to turn your higher education into real world experience with a company that is redefining human mobility. As part of the 24- month Ford College Graduate rotational, developmental program, you will be provided with the structure (orientation, training opportunities, experiences and feedback) to enhance your technical and professional competencies. Our goal is to support you and your transition into the robust, inclusive and engaged workforce needed to meet then product development needs of tomorrow. 

At Ford, the Vehicle Hardware Engineering teams are utilizing Design Thinking & User Experience methods to deliver breakthrough products and services that will delight our customers. Our employees are laser-focused on bringing innovative, exciting, and sustainable ideas to life. From autonomy and electrification to smart mobility technologies, our teams around the world are working together with excitement to make smart vehicles for a smart world. 

Responsibilities

Examples of areas of opportunity include: 

ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Propulsion and Thermal Systems Engineering (IPTSE) - The IPTSE team is responsible for developing combustion engines and the associated subsystems such as fuel delivery, cooling, and climate control for the vehicle. Engineers are assigned across various support activities involving the design, development, CAE analysis, and testing of the various subsystems. Engineers typically follow the development process from pre-program planning through prototype and production validation as well as product launch. 

Vehicle Evaluation and Verification – The Vehicle Evaluation and Verification (VEV) organization at Ford Motor Company ensures customer satisfaction by building, testing, and evaluating prototype vehicles and systems. The exciting future vehicles only exist digitally until we bring them to life. We bring them to life and then push them to their limits in our VEV world of extreme conditions. VEV develops cutting edge product verification using Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and state-of-the-art test methods. VEV has challenging opportunities across the following areas:  VEV Prototypes, VEV Proving Grounds and Test Labs, VEV Signoff, & VEV METS (Materials Engineering, Testing, and Standards)

Vehicle Propulsion Systems Engineering – Our Team calibrates and optimizes the control systems of the powertrain (engine, transmission, driveline, electric motor) for Gas, Diesel and Electrified vehicles to deliver optimized system operation and customer desired attributes such as performance, drivability, fuel economy, electric driving, hybrid system operation, emissions, shift quality, all-wheel drive operation, and other customer requirements. VPSE is responsible for integrating calibrations into each vehicle line that meets our customer’s expectations over a wide variety of operating conditions (from extreme cold to extreme hot, sea level to high altitude, low speed to high speed, on grades or with trailers, etc.) efficiently and with exceptional quality. To meet these customer needs, the calibration and control system is optimized and validated through extensive development and validation testing, including with physical vehicle testing, powertrain dyno testing, and analytical test environments (HIL, SIL, Analytics). Today's high tech propulsion system controls have millions of lines of code and several thousand control system parameters. In order to optimize this complex system, our team is comprised of many skills with experts in control system calibration methods, systems engineering, analytics and data science, model development and continuous integration methods, scripting, programming, agile methods, automation, program management, engine after-treatment design, etc.

Exterior and Structural Systems Engineering –  The Exterior and Structural Systems Engineering team is responsible for the design and release of exterior and vehicle structure parts.  Parts range from the body structure, frame, battery tray, doors, fascias & grilles, handles and latches, mirrors, glass, wipers, static and dynamic sealing, badges, lighting and other exterior ornamentation.  Engineers own their parts throughout the product development life cycle, from program start to program launch ensuring they meet all design rules and requirements.  They utilize engineering fundamentals such as foundation documents to ensure quality and cost efficiency.  Engineers are also involved during the product development process by conducting testing and CAE to support material cost reductions (TVM) and design changes.  

Interior Systems Engineering –  Responsible for the design and release of components in the interior of the vehicle including the instrument panel and console, seat structures and components, airbags and seat belts, and decorative trim. 

Underbody Systems - Responsible for world class concept designs thatare capable of meetinga full range of targets including vehicle driving dynamics, NVH, safety, appearance, cost, quality, and weight for underbody engineered systems including brakes, suspension, steering systems, and wheels/tires.

VHE- Systems - Provides essential engineering solutions and systems integration to and for the engineering function teams including Design Assurance & Quality; Systems & Hardware Integration; Engineering Design (CAD) and Bill-of-Material (BOM)

Digital Transformation (DT) - Responsible for leading the development and execution of tools & processes that support hardware (H/W) and software (S/W) engineering in the areas of requirements management, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), computer aided design (CAD), bill of materials (BOM), materials engineering, modeling & simulation (MOD/SIM), virtual validation, configuration management, change management, visualization, training, business intelligence & analytics (BI/Analytics), global marketing product data models, and extended reality (XR). These next generation capabilities and advanced technologies are accelerating the enterprise and engineering teams in the development of new vehicle programs that are higher performing, faster to market, lower in cost, and higher in quality.

Crash Safety & Analytical Engineering (CSAE) - The CSAE team is responsible for vehicle crash safety attribute engineering design and development of Unibody and Body on Frame Vehicles. In addition, they are responsible for the Full Vehicle CAE Integration and Core Analytical Engineering Methods.

• The Vehicle Crash Safety team works to ensure the vehicles are designed to protect occupants during collisions by adhering to established Regulatory and Compliance Standards, Internal Safety Design Guidelines and Public Domain Requirements.  This includes the use of Advanced Materials, Safety Features (Air Bags, Far Side Air Bags, and Side Air Curtains), and Design Techniques.  The engineering team must also consider 1st-principles load path analysis for each given vehicle modes that translate to structural vehicle integrity and the ability to absorb and disperse crash energy.  In addition, they are responsibility for design and developing the sensor calibration system. And ultimately ensuring compliance with the regulatory bodies like NHTSA and Euro NCAP, which is crucial to assigning a safety rating.
• The Analytical Engineering team’s role includes: Constructing vehicle-level finite-element, and fluid dynamics models by integrating component and sub-system models.  This work enables the vehicle attribute teams (crash-safety, strength and durability, heat-protection, noise & vibration, and ADAS) to run simulations that drive improvements to our vehicles. Establish consistent standards for modeling and simulation that are reliable, efficient and reflect the real-world performance of our vehicles. Developing new and improved methods for modeling and simulation, using the latest technologies; software for meshing, modeling, and solving, hardware, through high-performance computing and new techniques using Artificial Intelligence.

Requirements

Qualifications

What Are We Looking For?

• Bachelors, Masters or PhD in one of the following fields:
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Systems Engineering
  • Computer Engineering or Computer Science
  • Mechatronics Engineering
  • Vehicle Design
  • Manufacturing Engineering
  • Data Analytics
  • Semiconductor Engineering
  • Aerospace/Aeronautical, Biomedical, Chemical, and other disciplines in key areas
  • Mathematics, Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, or similar degree
  • Materials Science/Engineering
  • Metallurgical Engineering
  • Software Engineering (specializing in AI)
  • MBA (with an undergraduate degree in Engineering – Environmental a plus)
• Minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent)
• Candidates must graduate and be available for full-time work prior to September 2026 
   

Preferred Requirements:

• GPA of 3.4 on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent)
• Involvement with Formula SAE or similar extracurricular activities
• Outstanding communication skills
• Ability to work within a diverse team

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, we encourage you to apply!

As an established global company, we offer the benefit of choice. You can choose what your Ford future will look like: will your story span the globe, or keep you close to home? Will your career be a deep dive into what you love, or a series of new teams and new skills? Will you be a leader, a changemaker, a technical expert, a culture builder…or all of the above? No matter what you choose, we offer a work life that works for you, including:

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/GSRSP1

This position is a range of salary grades 5-6.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
 

Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire. 

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. 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. In the United States, if you need a reasonable accommodation for the online application process due to a disability, please call 1-888-336-0660.
 

Candidates who are in commuting distance to a Ford hub location may be required to be onsite four or more days per week. #LI-Hybrid