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PLM Engineering Manager

Ford · Dearborn, MI

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Level
Manager
Team
Manufacturing
Base pay
$133k–$251k
Experience asked
8+ years
Industry
Automotive
Posted
16 days ago

The role in 30 seconds

A management manufacturing role at Ford (automotive) in Dearborn, MI. It will also connect Ford's business and engineering stakeholders with the hosting and infrastructure teams and with Dassault Systèmes.

They ask for
8+ years
Tools it names
Root cause, Automation, Capacity planning, CATIA / NX, MES
Base pay
$133k–$251k

Read from the posting. The full description is below.

From the plant jobs report · week of November 2, 2026

Manufacturing Engineer roles in Michigan: typical posted base $81k–$166k. This one lists $133k–$251k.

Median of the low and high ends of 28 live postings that list pay, out of 83 manufacturing 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 82 other live manufacturing postings in Michigan.

Base pay
About 60% above similar roles

Typical $78k–$162k, from 27 postings that list pay.

Experience asked
More than usual (8+ vs 5+)

Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.

Skills these teams ask for most

  • New product launch 61%
  • Tooling 47%
  • Lean 40%
  • FMEA 33%
  • ✓ Root cause 30%
  • Team leadership 29%

✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.

Stands out: this posting asks for Capacity planning, MES, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.

It asks for 8+ years. If you're close, apply anyway: requirements are a wish list. Talk to someone doing this work there first.

At a glance

Promotion path mentioned

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. 1

    Pick 2–3 people on the Manufacturing team at Ford

    We found 11 people at this company and state: 8 in this kind of role, 3 leaders. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓

  2. 2

    Send a short, curious note

    One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.

    Write to Rob → (free)
  3. 3

    Turn a reply into a short call

    Questions worth asking about this team:

    • What does a normal week look like on your team?
    • Is the work mostly new product launches or sustaining existing lines?
    • How much time do you spend on the floor versus at a desk?
    • How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
  4. 4

    Apply with someone vouching for you

    If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.

  5. 5

    Bring proof to the interview

    One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.

This plant: Ford in Dearborn

30 other open roles at this site · 11 people we found in manufacturing roles at Ford.

All 31 roles at Ford →
Full description from FordAs posted on their careers site.Show

Requirements

Intake: Partner with engineering, manufacturing, and program teams to turn business

requirements

into sound technical designs. Advise on "out-of-the-box vs. customize" decisions.

Required Experience

  • ✓8+ years of experience with Dassault Systèmes ENOVIA / 3DEXPERIENCE, including platform customization, development, and administration
  • ✓5+ years in software development, software engineering, and scripting with 3DX customizations including EKL, JPO, JAR, YAML, & supporting automation/pipelines.
  • ✓3+ years in an escalation & production support role, for enterprise Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems
  • ✓3+ years leading or managing technical teams in an enterprise environment
  • ✓Proven experience managing vendor support escalations with Dassault Systèmes or comparable enterprise software vendors
  • ✓Experience working in a fast-paced, flexible industrial systems team like Ford Motor Company
  • ✓Expert-level experience using large language models and artificial intelligence
Show full description ↓

We are seeking an experienced PLM Engineering Manager to lead 3DEXPERIENCE customization, development, and high level escalation support. This pivotal leadership role will guide a team of 3DX developers, platform engineers, and release engineers. It will also connect Ford's business and engineering stakeholders with the hosting and infrastructure teams and with Dassault Systèmes.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader who understands the full 3DX architecture, from 3DPassport and 3DSpace through 3DSearch and FCS down to the database. You are equally comfortable reviewing a developer's trigger logic, analyzing a JVM thread dump during an outage, pushing a Dassault Systèmes Service Request up to R&D, and explaining the root cause to senior leadership in plain business terms. You set the engineering standards that keep Ford's heavily customized platform stable and upgrade-ready. A natural collaborator, you build trust across development, hosting, and business teams, and you thrive in a fast-paced environment where both delivery and accountability matter. This role is a people leader position but also highly technical.

Platform Customization & Development

  • •Customization Ownership: Lead the design, development, and delivery of all 3DX customizations, including data model extensions (type and attribute specialization, Unified Typing, policies, lifecycles), triggers, JPOs, MQL/TCL scripts, and EKL logic, using Dassault-supported methods.
  • •UI & Widget Development: Guide the development of 3DDashboard widgets (JavaScript/UWA), web forms, tables, commands, and menus that improve the engineering user experience.
  • •Integrations & Web Services: Own the technical design and support of integrations between 3DX and Ford enterprise systems, using 3DSpace REST APIs, custom web services, and middleware.
  • •Security Model: Oversee People & Organization (P&O) configuration, including collaborative spaces, organizations, roles, security contexts, and access rules.
  • •Engineering Standards: Define and enforce coding standards, code review practices, and source control for all 3DX development, so customizations stay upgrade-safe and technical debt stays low.

Level 3 Escalation & Incident Resolution

  • •Final Escalation Point: Serve as the highest internal escalation point for critical (P1/P2) and complex incidents across the 3DX suite, including 3DSpace, 3DPassport, 3DDashboard, 3DSearch/3DIndex, FCS, 3DSwym, and native app (CATIA/DELMIA) platform interactions.
  • •Root Cause Analysis: Lead deep diagnostics using application logs, MQL traces, JVM thread and heap dumps, database query analysis, and HTTP/network tracing to find the true root cause of failures across components.
  • •Vendor Escalation: Own the relationship with Dassault Systèmes Support and R&D. Drive Service Requests to resolution, make sure reproducible test cases are provided, and validate the hotfixes Dassault delivers.
  • •Incident Leadership: Serve as technical lead on incident bridges during 3DX platform outages. Coordinate rapid response across hosting, development, and supplier teams, and give clear, timely status to business stakeholders.
  • •Problem Management: Own root cause reports and problem records, and drive permanent corrective actions so the same issues do not come back.
  • •Shift-Left Enablement: Turn recurring L3 issues into knowledge articles, runbooks, and automated fixes so L1/L2 can resolve more issues and fewer reach L3.

Platform Stability & Lifecycle Management

  • •Performance Optimization: Oversee platform performance tuning across JVM/TomEE configuration, database (Oracle/SQL Server), indexing, caching, and FCS file throughput.
  • •Upgrade Readiness: Own the technical impact analysis of customizations for full upgrades, Functional Deliveries (FDs), and hotfixes. Lead regression testing and support cutover execution.
  • •Change Management: Make sure all customizations and platform changes follow ITIL-aligned change management processes, are properly documented, and carry appropriate approvals before promotion through Dev, Test, QA, and Prod.
  • •Automation: Drive the adoption of automation for deployments, bulk data operations, and platform health checks, fitting into the team's Ansible and CI/CD pipelines.

Capacity Planning & Team Leadership

  • •People Leadership: Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 3DX developers and escalation engineers, including hiring, performance management, and technical career growth.
  • •Resource Management: Lead capacity planning efforts, using Jira to track team bandwidth, forecast constraints, and assign resources against business priorities and escalation demand.
  • •Knowledge Transfer: Build technical depth across the L1/L2 support organization through training, code reviews, and hands-on troubleshooting coaching.
  • •Audit Support: Provide technical leadership and evidence for IT audits, ensuring 3DX customizations and changes comply with GRC, IFAR, and ASAR requirements.

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