Director of Engineering, Robotics
Ford · Redford, MI
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Controls
- Degree
- Required (or equivalent experience)
- Experience asked
- 10+ years
- Industry
- Automotive
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level controls role at Ford (automotive) in Redford, MI. Drive integration, test, reliability, and deployment discipline from lab to production.
- They ask for
- 10+ years · degree required (or equivalent experience)
- Tools it names
- Robotics
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of November 2, 2026
Controls Engineer roles in Michigan: typical posted base $79k–$130k.
Median of the low and high ends of 15 live postings that list pay, out of 61 controls engineer openings in Michigan, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Michigan plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 60 other live controls postings in Michigan.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- More than usual (10+ vs 5+)
Typical $79k–$130k, from 15 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Automation 72%
- ✓ Robotics 72%
- PLC 62%
- Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 28%
- New product launch 25%
- Root cause 23%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Controls team at Ford
We found 7 people at this company and state: 6 in this kind of role, 1 leaders. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
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Write to Mike → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
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- 4
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- 5
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This plant: Ford in Redford
1 other open role at this site · 7 people we found in controls roles at Ford.
- Controls Engineer · Controls
Full description from FordAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Qualifications
- ✓Bachelors Degree in Engineering or equivalent experience
- ✓10+ years of professional engineering experience
- ✓5+ years leading and managing engineering teams
Preferred Qualifications
- ✓Proven track record shipping complex robotics or hardware-plus-software systems to production or field
- ✓Background in robotics or an adjacent domain (autonomy, mechatronics, embedded, controls, or systems engineering)
- ✓Strong operational and program-management skills — you make delivery predictable
- ✓Technically credible enough to guide architecture-level decisions, while choosing to focus on execution
- ✓Excellent cross-functional communication and stakeholder management
- ✓Bachelor's or advanced degree in a relevant engineering field, or equivalent experience
- ✓Nice to have: startup/scale-up experience, manufacturing or production ramp, and field-deployment operations
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
We're growing fast and need a Director of Engineering to be the delivery engine of our robotics organization. Reporting directly to the Technical Director of Robotics — who owns technical and product direction and top-level architecture — you'll own how the work actually gets done: the teams, processes, and operational discipline that ship complex hardware-and-software systems on time and at quality.
This is a builder's role at a pivotal moment. You'll stand up and scale engineering teams, install the cadence and delivery practices that keep a fast-growing org predictable, and coordinate execution across hardware, software, and product. You'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with the Technical Director, translating strategy and architecture into concrete roadmaps and results. It's ideal for a strong technical leader who is energized by execution, team-building, and scale.
- •Own end-to-end delivery of robotics programs — planning, timelines, milestones, and quality
- •Build, structure, and scale engineering teams to keep pace with rapid growth; own hiring, performance, and development
- •Install and run operational cadence: roadmaps, sprint/milestone tracking, and status reporting
- •Coordinate execution across hardware, software, product, QA, and deployment/field teams
- •Drive integration, test, reliability, and deployment discipline from lab to production
- •Manage capacity, resourcing, and budget against commitments
- •Surface risks early, remove blockers, and keep delivery predictable as the team scales
- •Partner with the Technical Director to translate technical and architectural direction into executable plans
- •Report delivery health and progress to the Technical Director and ATP leadership