Staff Embedded Controls Engineer, Body Controls · Ford Motor Company

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:14:54 GMT
Engineering

Ford Motor Company · Palo Alto · $129,600-244,680 · hybrid

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 drivers and controlling actuators for low-voltage motors and lighting control.

Body systems span a diverse range of critical customer-facing attributes, hardware, and software. The team is responsible for controls of seats, tailgate, windows, latches, wipers, mirrors, various sensing systems, interior and exterior lighting, and control of other small motors in the vehicle domains. We work very closely with the interiors team, exteriors teams, low voltage electrical architects, and UI/UX team to deliver the best end-to-end user experience.

Responsibilities:

Create control/estimation algorithms for various body control features like window control, closure system, and lighting.

Lead the design and integration of various body controls hardware components on electrical test assets such as benches, bucks, labcars, and vehicles.

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, including low power modes.

Spearhead body controls feature development, working cross-functionally with hardware, software, architecture, and many other teams to author feature boundary diagrams and validation strategies.

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

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 experience.

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

7+ 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.).

7+ 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 in driver development and RTOS integration.

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.

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!