Chief of Staff & Operations - Hardware Engineering Greater Detroit, MI Area

The Chief of Staff & Business Operations Manager for Vehicle Hardware Engineering (VHE) is a leadership position reporting directly to the Vice President of Vehicle Hardware Engineering. In this high-impact role, you will lead and manage the dedicated VHE Business Operations & Strategic Engineering Management Team—the operational engine responsible for strategy, process governance, business performance, and cultural execution across global hardware engineering.

As Chief of Staff, you serve as a strategic partner, trusted proxy, and operational integrator for the VP. You will lead your team to bridge Executive Leadership Team (ELT) objectives with ground-level engineering execution, transitioning VHE from a traditional product developer into an enterprise Strategic Asset delivering market-leading product quality, bulletproof reliability, and unmatched cost efficiency.

The Chief of Staff leads, directs, and develops the VHE Business Operations team across five core functional pillars:

1. Executive Support & Chief of Staff Operations

Executive Proxy & Stakeholder Alignment: Manage team members representing VHE across enterprise forums (Software, Program Management, Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Quality), ensuring hardware engineering standards and strategic priorities are advocated.

Strategic Communications & Thought Leadership: Orchestrate high-stakes communications, drafting executive whitepapers, ELT presentation decks, board materials, and mass organizational updates on behalf of the VP.

Leadership Alignment & Feedback Cadence: Establish structured governance loops between VP, Director, and Chief Engineer levels to accelerate decision-making, remove organizational silos, and maintain transparency.

VP Priority Initiatives & Special Projects: Lead rapid-response cross-functional teams to resolve urgent operational, technical, or strategic challenges.

1. Business Operations & Enterprise Governance

Multi-Year Strategic Planning: Direct the multi-year planning process, converting ELT strategic objectives into actionable functional roadmaps (3-Year Strategy pillar of VHE Management System).

Performance Management & Digital Dashboards: Oversee the design and implementation of automated, real-time KPI/OKR dashboards, providing unvarnished operational visibility across program execution.

Enterprise SPoC Leadership: Serve as and manage the team acting as the primary Single Point of Contact (SPoC) for the Office of General Counsel (OGC), regulatory compliance bodies, and internal control test audits.

1. Continuous Improvement & Efficiency Leadership

Project Synergy & Efficiency Targets: Direct team initiatives to achieve efficiencies (2026–2030) and sustain 3% YoY engineering productivity gains across labor and non-labor spend.

Operational Waste Elimination: Spearhead cross-functional problem-solving to eliminate engineering friction, increase 'time to engineer,' and optimize workflow execution.

1. Organizational Strategy, Culture & Footprint

HRO Cultural Integration: Institutionalize HRO practices and rapid iteration, fostering psychological safety to surface weak signals early and convert unknown risks into managed solutions.

Education: Master’s degree in Engineering, Business Administration (MBA), or related technical management field required. Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, or Automotive Engineering strongly preferred.

People Management & Team Leadership: 2+ years of direct experience managing high-performing teams of operational, process, or program management professionals within complex global manufacturing/automotive organizations.

Progressive Engineering Experience: 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in automotive hardware engineering, D&R processes, GPDS vehicle gateways, FEDE BoM management, and B10 reliability standards.

Process & Quality Mastery: Demonstrated expertise in 8D root-cause problem solving, Failure Mode Avoidance (FMA), DFMEA, Design for Manufacture & Assembly (DFM/DFA), and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE).

Strategic & Business Acumen: Proven track record in multi-year strategic planning, engineering productivity modeling, ED&T should-cost analysis, prototype multiplier management, and footprint optimization.

Executive Presence & Communication: Exceptional oral and written communication skills; ability to synthesize complex technical challenges, present to Executive Leadership Teams (ELT), and drive cross-functional consensus.

High Reliability Leadership Mindset: Deep commitment to First-Principles thinking, intellectual humility, operational curiosity, and building safe, structural escalation mechanisms for technical risks.

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.

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.

For more information on salary and benefits, click here:

Visa sponsorship is not 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.