Engineer Systems Architect Jobs in Rochester Hills, MI

The Senior Power Management and Systems Architect is a technical leadership role responsible for shaping the architecture and long-term strategy of our vehicle power management platforms. This individual will define scalable, hardware-agnostic platform strategies, own the end-to-end architecture of the Powernet system, and act as the connective tissue between software, hardware, and cross-functional teams - ensuring that every layer of the platform works in concert to deliver a differentiated, reliable customer experience across Retail, Commercial, and Ford Pro segments.

This is a role for a systems thinker who can operate at both the strategic and detailed technical level: someone who can architect a multi-year platform vision while also being fluent enough in the details to guide teams through complex trade-off decisions, feasibility assessments, and design reviews - including the safety-critical implications of those decisions.

The future of the vehicle is being rewritten - not just how it looks or drives, but how it manages, distributes, and reasons about power at every layer, from silicon to software to the customer's daily experience. As electrification, software-defined vehicles, and increasingly sophisticated onboard features converge, the architecture behind power management has become one of the most critical - and most complex - engineering challenges in the automotive industry.

We are looking for a Senior Power Management and Systems Architect to help lead this transformation. In this role, you won't just be designing a power system for a single vehicle program - you'll be architecting the foundational platform strategy that powers an entire portfolio of current and next-generation vehicles, spanning Retail, Commercial, and Ford Pro customer bases. You will define how power is generated, stored, distributed, and controlled; how the system behaves across every lifecycle mode a vehicle experiences; and how that architecture scales, adapts, and remains resilient as new features, markets, and technologies emerge.

This role sits at a rare intersection of deep technical expertise and broad strategic influence. You will work hand-in-hand with software architects to define a layered platform architecture that is decoupled from any single vehicle's electrical implementation - enabling reuse, scalability, and faster innovation across programs. You will partner with hardware, networking, and feature teams to translate ambitious platform goals into rigorous High-Level Designs, system requirements, and safety-conscious architecture decisions - including evaluating ASIL requirements and supporting Functional Safety assessments to ensure the platform is not only capable, but trustworthy. And you'll help push the organization forward by championing AI-enabled and agile approaches to systems engineering itself - from rapid prototyping of new concepts to building intelligent knowledge systems that make the entire architecture team faster and smarter.

If you're energized by systems-level thinking, enjoy translating ambiguity into clear architecture and actionable roadmaps, and want your technical decisions to shape how millions of vehicles manage power for years to come, this role offers a rare opportunity to leave a lasting mark on the future of the vehicle platform.

As a Senior Power Management and Systems Architect, you will:

• Define the architecture and strategic direction of newer power management platform designed to scale across vehicle programs and customer segments.
• Serve as a key technical authority and mentor within the Power System Architecture team, shaping how the organization approaches system design, safety, and innovation.
• Act as the critical bridge between software, hardware, networking, and cross-functional leadership - as well as external engineering partners - ensuring the platform vision is executed with precision and coherence.
• Help modernize how systems engineering itself is done, bringing AI-driven tools and agile methods into a traditionally document-heavy discipline.

You'll have...

• Bachelor's degree (BS) in Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline is required.
• Minimum of 10 years of total professional engineering experience, including at least 5 years of relevant experience in systems architecture, systems engineering, or power/electrical systems engineering - ideally within automotive or another complex, safety-critical industry.
• Demonstrated success architecting layered, platform-based systems that are decoupled from specific hardware or vehicle implementations, enabling reuse across programs and markets.
• Proven experience collaborating with software architects to define platform/middleware layers, including abstraction, centralized management, and multi-ECU deployment strategies.
• Deep technical grounding in power system fundamentals, including energy storage, generation, distribution, control systems, load management, and reliability engineering.
• Experience developing centralized state or energy management strategies for complex electromechanical or automotive systems.
• Strong command of systems engineering methodology, including requirements decomposition, High-Level Design (HLD) development, interface definition, and failure mode analysis.
• Working knowledge of ASIL classification and safety-relevant system design principles, with demonstrated ability to identify when and where functional safety considerations apply within a system architecture.
• Track record of leading feasibility assessments and technical impact analyses for feature or architecture change requests within an established platform.
• Demonstrated ability to set technical vision - defining KPIs, goals, and enablers - and to influence engineering teams to execute against that vision without formal authority.
• Strong executive communication skills, with experience representing technical architecture to senior leadership and coordinating across internal teams and external partners/suppliers.

Even better, you may have...

• Master's degree (MS) in Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with vehicle high-voltage/low-voltage electrical architecture, battery management systems, or power electronics.
• Hands-on experience conducting or supporting Functional Safety (FuSa) assessments in accordance with ISO 26262, including hazard analysis and risk assessment (HARA), safety goal derivation, and ASIL decomposition for power system components.
• Familiarity with relevant automotive standards (e.g., ISO 26262, AUTOSAR, SAE recommended practices).
• Proficiency with systems modeling and architecture tools (e.g., MATLAB/Simulink, Cameo/MagicDraw, Enterprise Architect, DOORS).
• Experience supporting multiple product tiers and customer segments (e.g., Retail, Commercial/Fleet, Ford Pro-type offerings) with scalable platform strategies.
• Working knowledge of cybersecurity principles as applied to vehicle systems architecture, complementary to functional safety practices.
• Direct experience applying AI/ML tools - including generative AI, LLMs, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) - to engineering workflows, requirements management, or knowledge management.
• Experience benchmarking and adapting technologies or architectural strategies from adjacent industries (e.g., aerospace, industrial energy systems, consumer electronics).
• Functional Safety certification (e.g., ISO 26262 Functional Safety Engineer/Professional certification) is a plus.

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 leadership level 6 and ranges from $132,800-$200,000. 

Final determination of salary grade will be based on candidate's skills and experience, and base salary will be set within the applicable range according to job scope, responsibility and competitive market value.

For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/LL6

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.

This position is hybrid with a requirement to be onsite four or more days per week. 

#LI-Hybrid       #LI-MG3

What you'll do...

Platform Strategy & Layered Architecture

• Define and lead a technology platform development methodology that decouples core platform capabilities from underlying vehicle electrical architecture, enabling reuse and adaptability across diverse markets and vehicle programs.
• Partner with software architects to define the System Platform Layer, establishing clear goals, KPIs, and foundational capabilities for each architectural layer.
• Craft the strategy by which platform layers interoperate to deliver targeted feature- and experience-level outcomes, ensuring architectural coherence from silicon to software.
• Evaluate optimal allocation of platform functionality across hardware platforms, balancing system performance constraints against feature and experience KPIs.
• Define the strategy for deploying platform layers across the ECU landscape, ensuring middleware capabilities are abstracted, centrally governed, and portable across compute nodes.

Power System Architecture

• Own the development of the end-to-end Power System Architecture in close collaboration with feature, hardware, networking, and other cross-functional engineering teams.
• Continuously benchmark industry practices and emerging trends, assessing which cross-industry technologies and strategies are worth adapting into the platform.
• Set ambitious goals, KPIs, and target capabilities for the Power System Architecture that directly address known limitations in current designs.
• Define core power system capabilities across storage, generation, distribution, control, load management, and reliability.
• Drive the strategy for centralized vehicle state management and centralized vehicle energy management as foundational platform capabilities.
• Characterize vehicle power requirements across all lifecycle and operating modes, and establish strategies to ensure power budgets are met in each.
• Produce comprehensive High-Level Designs (HLDs) for the Powernet system - encompassing capabilities, use cases, functional allocation, interfaces, sequence diagrams, and failure mode avoidance.
• Establish the methodology for translating HLDs into system-level requirements and decomposing them into software and hardware requirements.
• Evaluate ASIL (Automotive Safety Integrity Level) requirements for key power system capabilities, ensuring safety-relevant functions are correctly classified and architected to meet their designated integrity level.
• Lead or closely support Functional Safety (FuSa) assessments of the Powernet architecture, ensuring hazard analysis, risk assessment, and safety goal allocation are properly reflected in system design and HLDs.

Feature Evaluation & Change Governance

• Lead technical evaluation of proposed features to confirm alignment with the established Powernet System Architecture.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to validate that new features and change requests remain compliant with platform- and feature-level KPIs.
• Lead architecture and system feasibility assessments for any change with potential impact to the Powernet system, providing clear technical recommendations to leadership.
• Assess the ASIL and functional safety impact of proposed features or change requests, ensuring any safety-relevant implications are identified early and appropriately mitigated before implementation.

Innovation & Process Transformation

• Identify and champion opportunities to modernize and accelerate system and software requirements development through AI-enabled tools and methods.
• Develop rapid prototyping approaches that allow new architectural concepts to be evaluated for feasibility and adoptability early and efficiently.
• Build and curate a knowledge base (retrieval-augmented generation/RAG) capturing Powernet System and Architecture knowledge to support engineering teams and accelerate decision-making.

Technical Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Provide architectural guidance and mentorship to system engineers and architects, ensuring High-Level Designs consistently meet platform objectives and system engineering best practices...