Hardware Development Engineer-Sight Vertical

Location: Redford, MI, United States; Hybrid

Ford Motor Company has endured and thrived for more than 118 years by reimagining how things are built. Today, Ford is leading a once-in-a-generation transformation in manufacturing — scaling EVs, integrating humanoid robotics, additive manufacturing, AI vision, and digital platforms into one seamless operating system: the Ford Production System (FPS/FPS+) that operates within the FAST framework. Ford Motor Company is undergoing a historic industrial shift — from building great vehicles to building great systems that scale across them. The Advanced Industrial Technology & Platforms (AITP) organisation was created to operationalise that shift. Our job is not to deploy isolated tools; it is to build a system that learns from factory truth, transforms it into scalable platforms, and turns those platforms into enterprise business value. Advanced Industrial Technology and Platforms (ATP) is a new, centralised organisation designed to position Ford to lead industrial innovation. This team will accelerate our digital evolution and manufacturing excellence — advancing the modernisation of our Ford Manufacturing operations with cutting-edge technology. As part of Ford Manufacturing, ATP is designed to integrate directly into our manufacturing sites, partner across teams (GME, safety, etc.) and drive innovation from initial idea to full implementation.

ATP is led by Managing Director Yung Fung, reporting to Ford Chief Manufacturing Officer Bryce Currie. This structure includes four vertical business units — focused on specific technology stacks — and four horizontals — shared services designed to ensure scale, deployment, and operational consistency.

As part of the AITP organisation, the Sight Vertical is responsible for building an end-to-end business around AI/ML anomaly detection products, operating as two product families.

Sight.Sense detects anomalies in parametric data: Sense.Machine (MiniTerms) for machine performance anomaly prediction and optimisation; Sense.Tooling (AI ToolSense) for tooling life optimisation; Sense.Energy for optimisation of supplies consumption; Sense.Stamping for stamping process anomaly prediction and surface splits; and Sense.MILO for in-process test quality anomaly detection.

Sight.Vision detects anomalies in image data: Vision.Scout for in-station visual error proofing across manual and automated processes; Vision.Surface for surface defect detection in components and vehicle bodies through the complete manufacturing process; and Vision.Station for manual process monitoring and anomaly detection covering productivity, quality and ergonomics.

The Sight Vertical product portfolio are set to converge on the Sight Anomaly Platform, which builds on Ford's Core Systems layer (Core OS, CoreDS, Core AI and CoreApps/FPS+). Together they form Ford's scalable platform to deliver, process quality assurance, and zero-downtime, zero-defect manufacturing.

How the Sight Vertical Works

The Sight Vertical operates through value-focused, cross-functional product teams across two product families: Sight.Sense and Sight.Vision, each led by a Head of Product Family. Product Managers lead the product problem, desired outcome and priority. Engineers and product designers work with them to discover and deliver effective solutions. Engineering Managers retain people, capacity, technical-system and engineering-health accountability.

This is a vertical-level role working across both product families. Priorities are agreed between the two Heads of Product and their Engineering Managers, so that your effort is directed by portfolio value. In addition, ATP Core provides the non-product engineering expertise the verticals depend on — enterprise standards, architecture, industrial controls, cybersecurity and platform guidance. This role holds a matrix reporting line into ATP Core to ensure alignment with those standards and ready access to that expertise.

The Opportunity

Ford's Advanced Technology Platforms (ATP) Sight organisation is seeking a Hardware Engineer to own the hardware backbone of our manufacturing intelligence products across both computer-vision and parametric sensing. You will be the technical owner for cameras, sensors and signal-acquisition devices, edge compute devices, power supply mechanisms, and network infrastructure deployed on Ford plant floors globally — spanning specification, sourcing, testing, safety and regulatory certification, and fleet management once systems are in production.

This role supports all Sight Vertical products, with near-term focus on Sight.IQ vision hardware and on establishing common hardware standards for Sense products already deployed at plant scale. It sits at the boundary between product engineering and manufacturing reality: you will make sure that Sight.Sense and Sight.Vision products are not dependent on one-off hardware choices, supplier-specific workarounds, or site-by-site engineering judgement.

We are seeking a motivated candidate with a penchant for learning to join our high-performing, energetic team. The role suits an engineer who enjoys working across different domains — image capture and parametric signal acquisition — and who wants to set standards that scale rather than solve each plant individually.

Want to come work on the development of cutting edge solutions in manufacturing intelligence? At Ford, we are re-imagining how manufacturing looks in the age of AI and building real solutions to implement in our factories to solve real problems and redefine what World Class looks like. We are looking for highly motivated professionals who want to function as a team to build great products, solve difficult problems, and set a new level of excellence.