Field Quality Engineer

We made history and now we work to transform the future – for our customers, our communities and our families. You'll see your work on the road every day, helping people move freely and pursue their dreams. At Ford, you can build more than vehicles. Come build what matters. At Ford, the Vehicle Hardware Engineering teams are using Design Thinking & User Experience methods to deliver breakthrough products and services that will delight our customers. Our employees are laser-focused on bringing innovative, exciting, and sustainable ideas to life. From autonomy and electrification to smart mobility technologies, our teams around the world are working together with excitement to make smart vehicles for a smart world. Within **Product Development (PD)**, the **Field Quality Engineering (FQE) team** plays a critical role connecting real-world customer experiences with engineering solutions. This team operates at the intersection of customers, dealers, and engineering—ensuring that emerging issues are rapidly identified, accurately understood, and resolved at their root cause. We are seeking **highly technical, hands-on engineers** who thrive in dynamic environments and are passionate about solving real-world problems to build this new team. **Location Strategy:** These roles will be deployed in close proximity to key Ford manufacturing facilities across **Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri**. Positioning Field Quality Engineers near these hubs enables rapid response to dealer-reported concerns in regions with strong Ford vehicle population, while also providing direct exposure to manufacturing processes. This proximity is critical to accelerating issue resolution, strengthening collaboration between field and plant teams, and ensuring engineers develop a deep understanding of how **In this position...** Field Investigation & Technical Validation - Travel to dealerships, fleet locations, and customer sites to investigate vehicle concerns firsthand (GEMBA) - Validate customer concerns by observing real-world conditions and confirming failure modes prior to repair or part replacement - Capture operating environments, usage patterns, and contributing factors impacting vehicle performance Technical Data Collection & Reporting - Collect and document detailed technical data, including photos, videos, and service observations. - Vehicle data logs (CAN, diagnostics, system data) and information from dealer equipment (alignment, tester data, etc). - Physical parts when required - Develop formal technical reports that clearly describe: Failure conditions, Reproduction steps, Environmental and usage factors, Initial observations and engineering hypotheses. - Provide clear and actionable inputs to Product Development engineering teams Engineering Collaboration & Problem Solving - Partner directly with PD engineering teams to support: Root cause investigation, Failure replication with first hand insights into field conditions - Development of corrective actions - Support structured problem solving (8D / 14D) by supplying high-quality field data and evidence - Accelerate issue resolution by bridging the gap between data signals and real-world validation Issue Identification & Prioritization - Utilize outputs from Ford systems (warranty triggers, VOQ trends, and internal analytics tools) to: - Identify issues requiring deep technical investigation - Support prioritization of emerging concerns Dealer & Customer Engagement - Work closely with: Dealer technicians and service managers, Customers and fleet operators. - Collect Voice of Customer (VOC) insights and ensure accurate problem definition - Product Feedback & Continuous Improvement - Provide real-time feedback to Product Development regarding: Emerging quality issues, Gaps in validation or test conditions, Customer usage differences vs design assumptions - Influence improvements to: Design robustness and recurrence prevention, validation strategies, Design standards, Customer experienc…