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Ford Motor Company

Senior Embedded Controls Engineer, Body Controls

Ford Motor Company
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hybrid senior full-time $138,800-$232,700 Palo Alto, CA

First indexed 30 Sept 2026

Description

Body systems play a critical role in delivering the customer experience across a wide range of vehicle features, hardware, and software.

Our team develops and integrates controls for seats, tailgates, windows, latches, wipers, mirrors, sensing systems, interior and exterior lighting, and other low-voltage motor-driven systems across vehicle domains.

We work closely with Interior, Exterior, Low-Voltage Electrical Architecture, UI/UX, Systems, Hardware, and Software teams to deliver seamless, reliable, and intuitive end-to-end vehicle experiences.

We are seeking a highly skilled Embedded Controls Software Engineer to join our Body Controls team. The ideal candidate has a strong background in embedded software development for complex, distributed, safety-critical systems, with hands-on experience developing device drivers and control strategies for low-voltage motors, actuators, sensors, and lighting systems.

Responsibilities

  • Specify, design, and implement software architecture for body controls firmware, taking ownership of the software codebase from initial prototype bring-up to high-volume production.
  • Develop control and estimation algorithms for body control features such as window systems, closure systems, lighting, and other actuator-based functions.
  • Lead the design, integration, and validation of body controls hardware components on electrical test assets, including benches, bucks, lab cars, and vehicles.
  • Collaborate with software integration teams to bring up core functions and translate software-level requirements into electrical hardware and system requirements.
  • Apply functional safety principles and participate in safety analyses for complex vehicle subsystems.
  • Develop and execute comprehensive test plans to validate firmware functionality, stability, robustness, and performance across operating conditions, including low-power modes.
  • Drive body controls feature development cross-functionally with hardware, software, architecture, systems, validation, and program teams.
  • Author feature boundary diagrams, subsystem block diagrams, validation strategies, and technical documentation.
  • Lead subsystem reviews across all phases of vehicle program development.
  • Support early firmware development activities, including hardware validation, lab car testing, and automation framework development for unit, SIL, and HIL testing.

Qualifications

  • Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or equivalent experience with evidence of exceptional ability.
  • 5+ years of experience writing clean, efficient, and robust production-grade C code for real-time embedded systems, with a strong understanding of coding standards like MISRA C.
  • Hands-on experience developing with Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) (e.g., FreeRTOS, SafeRTOS, OSEK/AUTOSAR) as well as bare-metal embedded software environments.
  • Strong experience in low-level debugging, hardware bring-up, and optimizing code for timing constraints, memory (RAM/Flash) footprint, and low-power modes.
  • 5+ years of experience in electrical hardware applications, prototype bring-up, and systems development.
  • 5+ years of experience with vehicle network protocols such as CAN, LIN, and Automotive Ethernet.
  • Strong electrical engineering fundamentals and hands-on experience with electrical test equipment, including oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, signal generators, power supplies, and related tools.
  • 5+ years of experience using embedded networking interface tools in automotive, aerospace, or a similar embedded systems environment.
  • Working knowledge of systems development, vehicle architecture, battery technologies, software and hardware tool development, motor calibration, OBD calibration, functional safety, networks, and diagnostics processes.
  • Experience creating and executing component-level test procedures and owning test results.

Benefits

  • 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 listing is enriched and indexed by YubHub. To apply, use the employer's original posting: https://efds.fa.em5.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1/job/71986