Staff Embedded Controls Engineer, Vehicle Motion · Ford Motor Company

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:14:52 GMT
Engineering

Ford Motor Company · Palo Alto · $135,420-226,980 · hybrid

The dynamics in which a driver feels the lateral and longitudinal forces in a vehicle is what defines the DNA for the vehicle itself. Join us in developing our next generation centralized vehicle motion control system where we can further bridge the interaction between the driver and the vehicle in a natural and intuitive way.

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Embedded Controls Software Engineer to join our team. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in embedded development supporting complex, distributed, safety critical embedded systems. Has hands-on experience developing math and physics-based control strategies.

Responsibilities:

Create and implement the control strategy for various vehicle motion attributes and functions, including lateral and longitudinal vehicle dynamics.

Work with suppliers to define functions and interfaces into 3rd party components, driving further consolidation and integration of vehicle functions into our centralized vehicle motion control system.

Collaborate with software integration teams to bring up core functions and broadcast software level requirements to electrical hardware and systems teams.

Understand functional safety principles and participate in functional safety analyses of complex vehicle subsystems.

Develop comprehensive test plans and perform thorough testing to validate firmware functionality, stability, and performance under various conditions.

Author subsystem block diagrams and lead subsystem reviews through all vehicle program development phases

Collaborate with other system integration leads to capture component level requirements, provide subject matter expertise in sourcing discussions, and collect and approve Device Transmittals.

Early phases of firmware development will focus on hardware validation, labcar testing, and setting up the automation framework for unit, SIL and HIL testing.

Qualifications:

Master’s degree in electrical engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Computer Science, with evidence of exceptional ability, or equivalent.

6+ years of experience on embedded controls systems such as chassis systems, VCM, or similar dynamic functions.

6+ years of experience on electrical hardware applications, prototype bring-up, and systems development.

6+ years of experience with Vehicle Network Protocols such as CAN, LIN & Automotive Ethernet

Strong EE fundamentals and hands-on experience with electrical test equipment (oscilloscopes, DMMs, signal generators, power supplies, etc.)

4+ years of experience using embedded networking interface tools for automotive, aerospace, or similar field.

Experience and working knowledge of systems development, vehicle architecture, battery technologies, software/hardware tool development, motor calibration technologies, OBD calibration, functional safety, network, and diagnostics process.

Experience with creating and executing component-level test procedures and owning all test results.

Even better, you may have...

Highly collaborative mindset and strong communication skills

Experience developing features such as hill hold, stability controls, anti-lock braking, park assist, cruise or adaptive cruise control, or other similar vehicle dynamic features.

Experience with software build tools like Bazel, Scons, Cmake etc.

Experience with fundamental hardware components on PCB and their analysis tools.

Ability to write testing scripts for using scripting languages (Python)

Fluent in software fundamentals including software design and maintainability.

Hands-on experience in hardware bring-up, system debugging, and code optimization.

Knowledge of electrical engineering fundamentals including circuit analysis and design.