Senior Electrical Distribution Integration Engineer

Ford Ford · Auto · Palo Alto, CA +1 · PD Operations and Quality

Senior Electrical Distribution Integration Engineer for Ford's Advanced EV Team, focusing on the design and integration of vehicle-side electrical wire harnesses for Software-Defined Vehicles. Responsibilities include zonal architecture leadership, multi-voltage power distribution, high-speed data management, system optimization, functional safety, ECAD schematic development, and hands-on integration/troubleshooting.

What you'd actually do

  1. Drive the electrical wiring system design from concept to production, focusing on the transition toward Zonal power and data distribution to minimize mass and maximize vehicle efficiency.
  2. Architect and integrate diverse voltage platforms, leading wire sizing, fuse coordination, and terminal selection based on steady-state and transient power profiles to ensure robust power delivery.
  3. Design for signal integrity across the vehicle’s data backbone, managing shielded circuits for ADAS sensors, Automotive Ethernet, and other high-bandwidth communication protocols.
  4. Partner with Subsystem engineers to establish harness partitioning and complexity strategies to minimize wire count, optimize cost, and reduce weight—critical metrics for EV range.
  5. Influence the design of grounding and network topologies while collaborating on Functional Safety (ISO 26262) assessments to ensure the EDS architecture supports safety-critical features.

Skills

Required

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, or a related technical field
  • 5+ years of experience in EDS design and development within the automotive, aerospace, or complex robotics industries
  • 5+ years of hands-on experience with professional EDS ECAD tooling (e.g., Mentor Capital, Zuken E3, or Vector Preevision)
  • Proven experience in a mass-production environment, taking a product from initial concept through Job 1/launch
  • Deep understanding of Electrical Engineering fundamentals (Ohm’s Law, voltage drop, thermal management, and circuit protection)

Nice to have

  • Experience with High Voltage (HV) DC power distribution
  • Familiarity with high-speed data requirements, including shielding, twisting, and connector selection for Automotive Ethernet or LVDS
  • Experience with vehicle instrumentation (data loggers, current clamps, oscilloscopes)
  • Familiarity with Confluence and Jira for task management
  • Demonstrated ability to manage high-variant harness architectures and "feature-to-pin" mapping
  • Experience performing DFM (Design for Manufacturing) and DFMEA (Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills
  • eagerness to work cross-functionally in a dynamic, high-performing team environment

What the JD emphasized

  • end-to-end vehicle-side electrical wire harness design and physical integration
  • Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV)
  • critical link between architectural theory and vehicle reality
  • hands-on during lab-car and vehicle "bring-up" phases to troubleshoot and validate your designs
  • 5+ years of experience in EDS design and development within the automotive, aerospace, or complex robotics industries
  • 5+ years of hands-on experience with professional EDS ECAD tooling (e.g., Mentor Capital, Zuken E3, or Vector Preevision)
  • Proven experience in a mass-production environment, taking a product from initial concept through Job 1/launch