Staff Sensory Engineer

Ford Ford · Auto · Long Beach, CA +1 · Research and Advance Engineering

This role focuses on the sensory experience of Ford vehicles, specifically Color and Materials and Illumination attributes. The Staff Sensory Engineer will act as the voice of the customer, leading Perceived Quality evaluations, developing specifications, and ensuring quality standards from concept to production. The role involves collaboration with various teams including Design, Marketing, Engineering, and Manufacturing, and requires knowledge of automotive materials, lighting technologies, and manufacturing processes.

What you'd actually do

  1. You will lead Perceived Quality evaluations for Color and Materials plus vehicle Illumination, assessing customer insight data, trends analysis, completing benchmarking and market spec assessments and generating targets and requirements to support your attribute,
  2. You will be responsible for developing the process for alignment of the Color and Material / Illumination specification on our vehicle projects, coordinating inputs from Color and Material Design, Studio Design, Marketing, Engineering and Programme, whilst also yourself acting as the voice of the customer for Perceived Quality. You will own the formal specification documentation which the whole team will use to understand the project intent.
  3. You will lead the virtual phase development team to ‘build in’ Sensory Quality, ensuring that design solutions deliver best in class execution capability for all components including injection moldings, cut and sew, paint and films.
  4. Entering the launch phase you will be responsible for setting the bar with respect to quality standards and requirements for Sensory Quality, ensuring that supplier sourced and internally produced components and assemblies meet the highest levels of competitiveness and meet world class standards.
  5. As components are nearing approval you will engage closely with the color harmony process, defining and verifying requirements for our products, and collaborating with the Core Development and Manufacturing teams to uphold exacting standards of execution throughout production.

Skills

Required

  • Bachelor's in Engineering, Product / Industrial / CMF / Automotive Design or technical discipline or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
  • 5+ years' experience with Automotive Lighting, Design Quality, Mastering, Craftsmanship or Perceived Quality Standards at a global Automotive company
  • Strong understanding of material and illumination impact on overall craftsmanship and perceived quality
  • Proven technical knowledge and ability to collaborate with engineering, design, manufacturing, and suppliers
  • Knowledge of various materials and decoration techniques (plastic, paint, leather/vinyl/fabrics, etc.)
  • Knowledge of various lighting technologies used in automotive applications.
  • Knowledge of texturing processes and applications
  • Knowledge of automotive components (interior/exterior) and relevant terminology

Nice to have

  • Experience with Automotive product Marketing or Consumer Research
  • Experience working in a manufacturing/production environment

What the JD emphasized

  • Must be willing to travel 10-20%