Senior Electrical Distribution… at Ford Motor… · Palo Alto

Senior Electrical Distribution Integration Engineer

Location: Palo Alto, CA, United States

As an EDS Integration Engineer for the Advanced EV Team, you will be at the forefront of defining the "nervous system" for our next-generation Model e products. You will be responsible for the end-to-end vehicle-side electrical wire harness design and physical integration, serving as a critical link between architectural theory and vehicle reality. This role is essential to the development of a Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV), where you will optimize the intersection of hardware, software, and mechanical packaging. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure the harness architecture is efficient, manufacturable, and robust, while remaining hands-on during lab-car and vehicle "bring-up" phases to troubleshoot and validate your designs.

What you’ll do…
• Zonal Architecture Leadership: Drive the electrical wiring system design from concept to production, focusing on the transition toward Zonal power and data distribution to minimize mass and maximize vehicle efficiency.
• Multi-Voltage & Power Distribution: Architect and integrate diverse voltage platforms, leading wire sizing, fuse coordination, and terminal selection based on steady-state and transient power profiles to ensure robust power delivery.
• High-Speed Data Management: Design for signal integrity across the vehicle’s data backbone, managing shielded circuits for ADAS sensors, Automotive Ethernet, and other high-bandwidth communication protocols.
• System Optimization & Partitioning: Partner with Subsystem engineers to establish harness partitioning and complexity strategies to minimize wire count, optimize cost, and reduce weight—critical metrics for EV range.
• Functional Safety & Topology: Influence the design of grounding and network topologies while collaborating on Functional Safety (ISO 26262) assessments to ensure the EDS architecture supports safety-critical features.
• ECAD Schematic Development: Develop logical and physical electrical schematics using professional ECAD tools (e.g., Capital, Zuken), owning the technical resolution of integration issues as they arise.
• Hands-on Integration & Bring-up: Support Labcar and prototype vehicle builds as the primary lead for electrical bring-up, circuit troubleshooting, and validating system-level changes in a real-world environment.
• Manufacturing & Innovation: Review 2D drawings and 3D routing to ensure supplier readiness while investigating new harness technologies (e.g., busbars or automated manufacturing) to push the boundaries of EV design.

You’ll have…
• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of experience in EDS design and development within the automotive, aerospace, or complex robotics industries.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with professional EDS ECAD tooling (e.g., Mentor Capital, Zuken E3, or Vector Preevision).
• Proven experience in a mass-production environment, taking a product from initial concept through Job 1/launch.
• Deep understanding of Electrical Engineering fundamentals (Ohm’s Law, voltage drop, thermal management, and circuit protection).

Even better you may have…

• Advanced EV Expertise: Experience with High Voltage (HV) DC power distribution and the challenges of integrating diverse voltage architectures.
• Data Integrity: Familiarity with high-speed data requirements, including shielding, twisting, and connector selection for Automotive Ethernet or LVDS.
• Prototyping Skills: Experience with vehicle instrumentation (data loggers, current clamps, oscilloscopes) in a controlled lab or test-track environment.
• Agile Mindset: Familiarity with Confluence and Jira for task management in a fast-paced, iterative development cycle.
• Complexity Management: Demonstrated ability to manage high-variant harness architectures and "feature-to-pin" mapping.
• Analytical Rigor: Experience performing DFM (Design for Manufacturing) and DFMEA (Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) to ensure long-term reliability.
• Communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills with an eagerness to work cross-functionally in a dynamic, high-performing team environment

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 8 and ranges from $138,800-$232,700.
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.
Internal applicants: moving into this role may result in an adjustment to your current compensation based on the posted pay range for this role, taking into consideration your qualifications and other relevant factors.

For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/gsr8

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.

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

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