Quality Engineer, Ford Energy

Ford Energy is a newly formed, wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company dedicated to accelerating U.S. energy independence. Leveraging Ford’s century of manufacturing excellence and world-class battery energy storage systems (BESS) technology, Ford Energy designs, manufactures, and services grid-scale and commercial DC battery energy storage systems (BESS).

As a Quality Engineer at our Glendale, Kentucky battery park, you will be at the forefront of the most historic transformation in the energy systems industry. In this critical role, you will:

• Lead with Purpose: Build and lead an agile team to deliver the advanced quality standards and technology that drive the future.
• Innovate: Use your entrepreneurial skills and team mindset to come up with data-driven solutions during the design, construction, and launch phases of a massive Greenfield manufacturing site.
• Empower Others: Create a culture of trust, encourage diversity of thought, and foster leadership in others to make quality a shared organisational responsibility.

Responsibilities

Greenfield Quality Excellence & Manufacturing Systems

• Apply engineering principles and analytical techniques to drive continuous improvement in automated battery manufacturing processes.
• Play an integral part in the Launch process by establishing and monitoring quality target levels at the workstation level for each build phase to validate workstation readiness.
• Manage and direct Statistical Process Control (SPC) activities, utilising control charts, data collection, and GD&T to minimise manufacturing variation.
• Conduct process audits to ensure the production process adheres to strict guidelines, specific process standards, and environmental/quality compliance (including ISO 14001, ISO 9001, and IATF 16949).
• Support efficiency planning to ensure workstations are properly set up with quality risks and failure modes (PFMEA) proactively identified and addressed.

Leadership & Culture

• Develop "Leaders as Teachers": Function as the leader and subject matter expert for your specified section of the production line. Coordinate activities and drive improvements to achieve plant KPIs.
• Embrace the Gemba Philosophy: Regularly engage on the production floor to act as the team leader in resolving assembly-related concerns and driving lean manufacturing initiatives.
• Remove Barriers: Lead variability reduction, lean manufacturing best practices, and the development of solutions for throughput constraints.
• Champion Transparency: Work cross-functionally with Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, and Suppliers.
• Flexibility: Ability to support a 24/7 manufacturing operation, including flexibility to work across shifts, weekends, and extended hours as business needs dictate.

Strategic Management & Integrity

• Develop relevant KPIs and data visualisations to enable a clear, real-time understanding of actual vs. expected quality and process performance.
• Lead the development of interim and permanent corrective actions to resolve quality and production issues using 8D methodology and structured problem-solving tools.
• Provide robust change management leadership, ensuring all process, equipment, and product modifications are executed with zero impact on quality integrity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Industrial, or related field).
• 3+ years of manufacturing process or quality engineering experience in an automated manufacturing facility.

Benefits

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