Functional Safety V & V Senior Engineer

About the role

A Functional Safety Engineer (two variants) reporting to the Director of the Office of Functional Safety Assurance, responsible for developing and executing functional safety verification and validation strategies, creating AI‑enhanced health dashboards, and driving safety maturity across Ford’s connected vehicle software and product data integrity teams.

About the company

Ford Motor Company is a global automotive leader that designs, manufactures, and sells vehicles and connected mobility solutions, emphasizing innovation, safety, and a culture offering diverse career paths and employee resource groups.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.
• Minimum 5 years of hands‑on experience in embedded automotive safety software verification.
• Deep knowledge of ISO‑26262 Part 6, including software requirements analysis, decomposition, allocation, verification, architectural design, safety analysis, safety mechanisms, unit testing, integration, verification, FFI, DFA, and software‑hardware systems engineering.
• Experience using AI in embedded software development and verification.
• Proficiency with safety software test tools such as requirements analysis tools, IDEs, static code analysis, code complexity metrics, coverage analysis, MISRA and SafeC checkers, debuggers, configuration management, change control, CI/CD pipelines, regression testing, SIL/HIL/MIL, model‑based development, and fault‑injection test strategies.
• Working knowledge of ISO‑26262 Parts 3‑4 concepts, systems engineering processes, HARA, HAZOP, functional safety concepts, and ability to translate system work products into software.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills for effective engagement with cross‑functional teams, external partners, and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated leadership, initiative, and problem‑solving ability to deliver high‑quality safety‑critical software.
• Master's degree in a technical or management field (preferred).
• Functional safety professional accreditation (e.g., UL, TUV, Exida, or equivalent) (preferred).
• Additional experience in systems or hardware development for safety applications (preferred).
• Experience with software‑related standards development (preferred).
• Ability to apply strategic and systemic thinking to complex systems‑of‑systems problems (preferred).
• Comfort with ambiguity and skill in structuring approaches to complex problems (preferred).
• Innovation mindset to drive process, engineering excellence, quality, and efficiency improvements (preferred).
• Continuous‑improvement mindset focused on system‑level design and delivery excellence (preferred).