Join a tight-knit, rapidly growing team that values collaboration, continuous learning, and a passion for pushing technological boundaries. Be at the forefront of modernizing Ford's core Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platforms and you will have a direct impact on the tools our engineers use every day.
We are the Product Development (PD) Platform Operations team, the driving force behind Ford's next-generation infrastructure and software solutions. Our mission is to build scalable, highly available environments that empower our engineers to design and build the vehicles of the future. We thrive on innovation, embracing cutting-edge technologies and methodologies like Infrastructure-as-Code, Configuration-as-Code (powered by Ansible), software & event driven, and cloud-native development - all while using modern enterprise & CI/CD methodologies.
This role sits within the Infrastructure, Platform, & DevOps portion of our Product Development (PD) Platform Operations team - the driving force behind Ford's next-generation infrastructure and software solutions. Our team maintains all aspects of Ford's deployed 3DX & Teamcenter platforms, including the monolithic applications we deploy & support, as well as separate applications built to empower our product engineering user base.
We are seeking an experienced Cloud & DevOps Manager to lead our Platform organization and drive strategic technical initiatives. This pivotal leadership role will oversee the architecture, development, and delivery of business-critical applications that power our digital transformation in product development and manufacturing. You'll build and mentor high-performing engineering teams across local & global locations while establishing a culture of technical excellence and innovation.
This is a high-visibility position requiring collaborative leadership across technical and business stakeholders to deliver transformative digital products that shape Ford's future.
This role is in the technical leadership family, meaning, it's expected to technically contribute but also be a coach, leader, and manager for our talented group of engineers.
Technical Leadership & Strategy
Define and drive the DevOps and cloud infrastructure roadmap aligned with business goals
Design scalable, secure, and cost-effective cloud architectures (Google Cloud Platform)
Oversee CI/CD pipeline development and infrastructure automation initiatives - using Ansible, Terraform, & other constructs
Establish technical standards, best practices, and governance frameworks for greater team
Lead cloud migration/modernization projects & infrastructure efforts
Make build-vs-buy decisions and evaluate new tools & technologies
Ensure system reliability, security, and performance through monitoring and optimization - using code
Partner with engineering teams to improve deployment velocity and developer experience
Stay hands-on enough to understand technical challenges and make informed decisions
Balance technical debt with innovation and business needs
People Leadership & Team Development
Build, lead, and inspire a high-performing team of DevOps, architects, & cloud engineers
Mentor team members through technical challenges and career growth opportunities
Conduct regular 1:1s, provide constructive feedback, and create individual development plans
Foster an inclusive, collaborative culture where team members feel valued and empowered
Manage hiring, onboarding, and retention strategies to build a diverse, skilled team
Advocate for your team's needs, remove blockers, and create an environment for success
Develop future leaders within your team through delegation and growth opportunities
Build cross-functional relationships with engineering, product, & business leaders
Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence
Translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and business leadership
Build trust across development, product, security, & operations teams
Champion DevOps culture and continuous improvement across the organization
Facilitate communication between teams to break down silos and improve collaboration
Manage stakeholder expectations and communicate progress, risks, and trade-offs
Operational Excellence & Process
Establish incident response procedures and lead postmortem processes
Define & maintain SLAs, SLOs, & other success metrics for platform & applications
Drive continuous improvement through retrospectives and feedback loops
Balance competing priorities and make strategic resource allocation decisions
Manage budgets and optimize cloud costs without sacrificing quality
Preferred Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
Experience scaling teams through periods of rapid growth
Background in Agile/Scrum environments and continuous delivery practices
Cloud certifications or other relevant technical certifications preferred
Experience managing geographically distributed or remote teams
Formal leadership training or coaching certification
Experience with change management and organizational transformation
Previous experience in Manufacturing or Product Development
Huge plus if you have experience with Siemens Teamcenter or Dassault Systems 3DX
People Leadership Experience
5+ years of proven experience directly managing technical people & teams
Demonstrated success in coaching, mentoring, and growing engineering talent
Expert in building positive team cultures and improving team performance
Excellent communication skills - both written and verbal, technical and non-technical
Technical Experience
7+ years of hands-on experience in DevOps, cloud engineering, and/or infrastructure roles
5+ years strong working knowledge of public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Experience utilizing Red Hat Openshift & the suite of products
Experience with Github, Github Actions, release management, & code repository management
Expert with traditional infrastructure like VMs, load balancers
Expert in modern deployment methodologies such as serverless, Kubernetes
Expert in CI/CD methods, infrastructure-as-code, application-as-code, & containerization
Expert with automation & scripting within Linux operating systems (RHEL, SLES, SUSE, & Debian)
Strong understanding of software development & engineering ecosystems
Understanding of architecture, networking, and security fundamentals (least privileged)
Ability to guide technical decisions and review architectural designs
Core Competencies
Strategic thinking balanced with tactical & technical execution
Growth mindset and commitment to continuous learning
Strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills
Collaborative leadership style with ability to influence without authority
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, and prescription drug coverage
Flexible family care, parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care 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 schedul
