DTO Supervisor Surface Development

We made history and now we work to transform the future—for our customers, our communities, and our families. You'll see your work on the road every day, helping people move freely and pursue their dreams. At Ford, you can build more than vehicles. Come build what matters. Join us in shaping the future of Ford Motor Company as part of a global organization with exceptional colleagues in world-class facilities.

As part of Ford Design, you’ll be at the cutting edge of Ford’s most strategically critical work, designing people and society’s needs into the heart of our next generation of products, services, and experiences. Design Technical Operations turns design vision into reality with an obsession for detail and the art of the possible. As an integral part of Ford Global Design, we deliver theme feasibility, surface geometry, and production-launch appearance quality.

About the role

As the Supervisor of Theme Surface Development, you will guide your team and cross-functional partners to deliver A Surfaces that are feasible and maintain the emotive direction of the Design Studio. This role leads program, functional, and internal studio teams through Ford's Design Feasibility (FC) Progression from initial concept feasibility through to final tool-able A Surface approval. This position is hybrid with a requirement to be onsite four or more days per week.

Responsibilities

• Lead the creation of Class A surface, integrating technical, feasibility, manufacturing, and program requirements into the Design theme and surface to support the development of theme models from concept through final production release of Class A surface.
• Lead the Design Surface Process from early concepts to production surfaces, including studio-required deliverables and balancing program, functional, manufacturing, and attribute trade-offs for design feasibility progression.
• Deliver feasible, design-intent, high-quality Class A surface on time, meeting deliverable requirements.
• Lead surface development reviews within Design, follow up on issues, and drive closure. Mediate incompatibilities between design and hardpoints, documenting agreements and next steps.
• Compile, publish, and drive closure of surface and feasibility critique sheets.
• Co-create to identify possibilities, solutions, and win-win outcomes that align around the Design Vision, program direction, and engineering requirements.
• Create surface proposals to drive team alignment around Design Vision and stakeholder requirements.
• Lead the development of feasibility surface proposals throughout theme and surface development that enable the Design vision.
• Support the delivery of Studio properties, including planning, content, and development.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• 5+ years of automotive surfacing authoring with a high knowledge of surface feasibility experience.
• 2+ years of experience utilizing CAD (Catia V5, 3DX, ICEMSURF, or Alias) and Data Management (TCe).

Qualifications

• Design articulate with proven experience in Studio procedures, Design progression, and the FC Process.
• Demonstrated experience in leading and presenting to cross-functional forums.
• Strong understanding of the Class A digital and physical surface verification processes.
• Detail-oriented with strong process execution discipline.
• High proficiency in CAD (Catia V5, 3DX, ICEMSURF, or Alias), Data Management (TCe), and visualization tools (VRED, Unreal), with an understanding of polygonal modeling.

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!

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage.
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up childcare, 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.
• 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.

Pay

This position is a leadership level 6 and ranges from $127,100 to $239,900. Final determination of salary grade will be based on the candidate's skills and experience, and base salary will be set within the applicable range according to job scope, responsibility, and competitive market value.

Schedule

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