Senior Product Manager

Manufacturing Engineering is responsible for the planning, design, engineering and construction of Ford's manufacturing facilities to support new vehicle & powertrain programs.

The Tooling Design & Build IT Senior Product Manager will have global end-to-end responsibility for the Stamping Engineering software portfolio while also providing engineering application product support for the Dearborn and Cologne Tool & Die Plants.The senior product manager will lead a team of software engineers in Dearborn and Chennai. The team consists of 14 team members in India and the U.S. The software includes in-house developed applications as well as key engineering COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) packages. For the in-house developed applications (FREDOM, MSDB, STAMPS), major deliverables include the modernization of the applications (migration to GCP, rewrite to cloud native, resolution of security concerns) as well as enhancing the products with neew functionality to meet evolving business needs. In addition, in the COTS domain, the legacy application PPS will need to be phased out at Cologne Tool & Die. Stamping CAD tools in the portfolio need be ported to 3DX where appropriate.

• Lead the Tooling Design and Build IT team at Ford.
  • The product team consists of 14 global team members in India (8) and the USA (6)
  • Perform people management activities such performance reviews, backfill of open positions, individual personal development, etc. Work with in-country people manager for U.S. people management needs.
  • Build up capability in India to support EU VOME (Vehicle Operations Manufacturing Engineering) and Cologne Tool & Die as appropriate.
• Shape the Stamping Engineering and Toolshop software portfolio globally
  • Continue technology modernization of the internally developed portfolio (FREDOM, MSDB, STAMPS) as cloud-native Angular / Springboot / PostGres applications running in Google Cloud (GCP)
  • Replace legacy COTS applications such as PPS.

  • Implement new capabilties within the product portfolio to meet evolving business needs.

• Manage & optimize software licenses, budgets and purchase orders for the COTS engineering packages and purchased services (OpEx budget of approx. $7M globally)
• Work with relevant ET organizational areas and senior management to determine priorities, capacity and funding handle business relationships with key global users including the Tool & Die Plant Leads in Dearborn and Cologne, NA and EU Stamping Leads.

Minimum - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering. (Preferred - Master's degree in Mechanical or Manufacturing Engineering).

Leadership skills:

• Excellent leadership, communication, consulting, negotiation and interpersonal skills
• Ability to manage a complex and diverse software portfolio at global and regional levels
• Ability to manage conflicting priorities and interests
• Capability to maintain close business relationships, work effectively on cross-functional and cross-regional teams
• Ability to work with Senior Business and IT Management, interfacing with all levels of personnel
• Ability to drive global strategies and initiatives with the global IT and business teams
• Ability to lead and form teams, develop team members and address conflicts
• Strong communication skills (verbal and in writing), confidence to present to various participants at all leadership levels

Functional & Technical skills:

• Strong analytical mindset and ability to structure and visualize complex problems
• Capability to interpret business requirements and recognize IT impact and design sustainable solutions
• Broad knowledge of Product Driven Organizaiton (PDO) roles, Agile development, Business Relationship Management, Portfolio Management and IT processes.
  • Project Management skills
  • Solid understanding of IT Financial Management and Demand Management processes
• Proven ability to adopt new IT technologies and drive Innovation
• Develops a deep understanding of Manufacturing Engineering Processes, Stamping Engineering die processes, die design and die manufacturing
• Nice to have:
  • Background in Java development, databases and related tools (such as Tekton, FOSSA, Cycode, etc.)
  • Prior experience working in Product Development IT or Manufacturing IT