In this position...
Ford is building a conversational, voice-forward AI assistant that helps customers interact naturally with their vehicle. The In-Vehicle Intelligence team owns the embedded experience that runs on the vehicle and connects to a cloud AI backend, spanning voice invocation, in-cabin audio processing, natural conversation, and direct control of vehicle features.
We are looking for a Software Product Engineer (SPE) to own the end-to-end engineering lifecycle of assistant features on the vehicle. The role sits at the intersection of deep technical expertise, product ownership, and engineering execution. You will partner with product, design, systems, and platform teams to define what we build and why, then drive feasibility, architecture, integration, and release sign-off to deliver production quality features across multiple vehicle programs. This is a high-visibility role on one of Ford's top product priorities, with direct impact on the experience millions of customers will have with their vehicle.
What you'll do...
- Own and drive the technical execution of in-vehicle assistant features from early design through production release, ensuring feasibility, integration, and quality across vehicle milestones.
- Maintain a deep architectural and functional understanding of owned features, including end-to-end system behavior, interface interactions, and behavior per vehicle configuration across embedded systems and cloud extensions.
- Translate product requirements, system specifications, and UX flows into engineering-ready technical stories and acceptance criteria for development teams.
- Lead architecture and design reviews, confirming specification completeness before implementation begins, and identify and mitigate integration risks early.
- Drive cross-team technical alignment, interface contracts, versioning, and testability across subsystems and partner interfaces.
- Partner closely with audio and acoustics teams on the in-cabin voice pipeline, including invocation, echo cancellation, voice activity detection, and multi-occupant speaker handling, to ensure robust real world performance.
- Serve as the technical liaison to external technology partners, owning API integration, validation, interface documentation, and joint debugging.
- Lead defect root cause analysis and triage across vehicle logs, debug traces, analytics, and integration test failures, prioritizing work based on platform impact and customer experience.
- Validate features in simulation (HIL and SIL), on integration benches, and in-vehicle, and own technical sign-off for software releases.
- Lead engineering input to Program Increment planning, including scope, milestone definitions, dependencies, and risk reporting to program leadership.
- Deliver over-the-air feature enhancements and performance improvements based on platform diagnostics and customer data.
- Contribute to production-level code and system architecture discussions, maintaining strong technical depth and credibility.
You'll have...
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- Several years of experience in embedded, automotive, or systems software engineering, with hands-on production code experience.
- Well versed in modern programming languages used for embedded and application software (for example C++, Kotlin, or Java).
- Demonstrated ownership of features through the full lifecycle, from design and architecture through integration, validation, and release.
- Experience defining and reviewing technical designs (HLDs), interface contracts, and system level requirements.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and the ability to drive alignment across product, design, systems, and engineering teams.
Even better, you may have...
- Experience with Android Automotive OS or other embedded automotive platforms.
- Experience integrating cloud services or AI and machine learning components into embedded products.
- Background in real time audio processing, speech, or voice assistant systems.
- Experience working with external technology partners on API integration and certification.
- Familiarity with Agile and SAFe delivery, including Program Increment planning and backlog management.
- Experience with requirements traceability and lifecycle tools (for example Jira, Confluence, Jama, Figma).
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.
This position is a salary grade 7-8.
For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/GSR
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 #LI-LB1