Software Development Engineer

We are seeking a highly skilled engineer to design, build, and operate large-scale, cloud-native systems that power Ford’s connected vehicle capabilities. In this role, you will design and support mission-critical cloud platform components, own services that directly impact customer experiences, and help shape the technical direction of platforms operating at extreme scale. You will balance strong data-driven decision-making with the ability to move forward effectively when information is incomplete.

Responsibilities

Engineering & System Design
• Design, develop, maintain, and support multiple mission-critical cloud platform components that enable Ford’s connected vehicle ecosystem.
• Own end-to-end delivery of software services powering critical customer experiences, as well as the platform infrastructure that supports them.
• Design, develop, and operate high-performance, cloud-based and microservices-driven platforms at scale.
• Build resilient backend services using technologies such as Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, PostgreSQL, gRPC, REST, and Kubernetes.
• Develop and deploy services on AWS and/or GCP, leveraging managed services.

Cloud, DevOps & Delivery Excellence
• Implement and maintain robust CI/CD pipelines with a strong focus on security, reliability, and efficiency.
• Apply TDD and DevOps best practices using tools such as Jenkins, ArgoCD, SonarQube, Fossa, and GitHub.
• Champion automation and operational consistency across environments.

Quality, Performance & Reliability
• Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code that meets high quality standards.
• Perform API load, stress, and performance testing to ensure scalability and reliability.
• Own service health by proactively identifying performance bottlenecks and system risks.

Operational Excellence
• Implement comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and performance management strategies.
• Ensure systems consistently meet SLA and reliability targets, minimizing customer impact.
• Collaborate with team members to establish and evolve best practices that reduce operational risk.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement
• Proactively identify opportunities to adopt emerging technologies and improve system efficiency.
• Lead or contribute to system refactoring initiatives to improve performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Anticipate future challenges through data-informed decision-making and pragmatic engineering judgment.

Agile Collaboration
• Work within Agile development environments, partnering closely with product managers and cross-functional teams.
• Translate business and product requirements into incremental, production-ready solutions.

Technical Leadership & Communication
• Participate in and lead design discussions, contributing to architectural decisions and technical standards.
• Influence technical direction while fostering collaboration across teams.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Drive to sound conclusions even when data is incomplete or ambiguous.

Customer-Centric Mindset
• Stay ahead of emerging industry trends and technologies.
• Align technical solutions with customer needs and business outcomes, ensuring long-term value creation.

Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 3+ years of progressive experience in cloud-based software development.
• 3+ years of experience designing, deploying, and supporting cloud-based solutions in production environments.
• 3+ years of experience understanding of API design and integration patterns to enable seamless system and data exchange.
• 3+ years of experience supporting mission-critical, always-on applications with high reliability, availability, and performance requirements.
• 3+ years of hands-on expertise with GCP or AWS and cloud-native services including Cloud Run, Pub/Sub / MSK, Apigee / Tyk, Observability technologies and container orchestration platforms such as GKE, EKS, or Kubernetes.

Preferred
• 5+ years of progressive experience in cloud-based software development.
Solid knowledge of cloud security principles with the ability to design and implement secure software solutions.
• Experience with infrastructure as code and deployment automation using Terraform, as well as CI/CD tools such as Cloud Build, ArgoCD, and Tekton.
Proficiency with canary deployments and API-related technologies including JSON, REST, Swagger/OpenAPI, and Postman.
• Experience operating and supporting critical applications in 24x7, “always-on” production environments.

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 6 through 8 and ranges from $83,000 to $160.000.
Palo Alto - This position is a salary grade 6 though 8 and ranges from 123,000 to 245,000.
For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/GSR, https://fordcareers.co/LL6, https://fordcareers.co/LL5, https://fordcareers.co/LL4Benefits, Click here to find out more about available programs and benefits: https://fordcareers.co/interns, Click here to find out more about available programs and benefits: https://fordcareers.co/supplemental
Visa sponsorship is 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.
This position is hybrid (onsite four days per week) for candidates who are in commuting distance to a Ford hub location.
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