We are the movers of the world and the makers of the future. We get up every day, roll up our sleeves and build a better world -- together. At Ford, we’re all a part of something bigger than ourselves. Are you ready to change the way the world moves?
As the Senior Data Scientist for Manufacturing AI & OT Data Strategy, you will play a multifaceted role combining strategic leadership and hands-on technical expertise. You will be responsible for overseeing the end-to-end lifecycle of data science projects, from initial problem definition and data acquisition to the deployment and continuous monitoring of models. You will serve as a key liaison between Manufacturing Operations, Engineering, and IT teams to translate complex industrial challenges—such as predictive maintenance, quality defect prediction, and process optimization—into scalable AI solutions.
Responsibilities
AI Stack Development: Build features and services across the full AI stack: orchestration, retrieval/grounding, prompt/agent logic, evaluation/guardrails, serving, and observability.
End-to-End ML Pipelines: Build end-to-end ML pipelines from data collection and labeling through training, evaluation, and deployment across diverse factory environments.
Multi-modal Data Science: Work with diverse, heterogeneous datasets combining multiple modalities including images, multi-spectral sensor outputs, video, text, and tabular data to build scalable solutions.
Production Ownership: Take ownership of production models, ensuring robust monitoring, drift detection, and alerting systems for rapid issue resolution.
Cross-functional Collaboration: Collaborate with teams in production, process engineering, controls, and quality to translate ambiguous problem statements into actionable, end-to-end machine learning solutions.
Manufacturing Problem Solving: Partner with factory, quality and engineering teams to identify high-impact problems solvable through AI.
Qualifications
Education: BS/MS or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.
Overall Experience:
5+ years of progressive experience in Data Science, utilizing Machine Learning in production to solve complex business problems in a leading role.
3+ years of direct experience applying data science within a manufacturing or industrial environment (ideally automotive).
For Senior Level: Demonstrated ownership of services or platform components, end-to-end delivery of machine learning applications.
Technical Expertise:
Expert proficiency in Python (Numpy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow/PyTorch).
Strong SQL skills for complex data extraction, modeling and manipulation.
Proven ability to rapidly learn new concepts and apply machine learning methodologies to new and diverse domains.
Infrastructure & DevOps:
Proficiency with modern software delivery practices (version control, CI/CD, Terraform).
Familiarity with cloud platforms (GCP Preferred), cloud-native services, and containerization (Docker/Kubernetes).
What Will Give You A Competitive Edge
Hands-on experience with LLM application concepts (retrieval, grounding, agent design, function/tool use, evaluation, and MCP server).
Real-world experience deploying and maintaining production machine learning systems within an industrial or manufacturing set-up.
Deep experience with Operational Technology (OT) data infrastructure and industrial protocols (e.g., OPC UA, MQTT).
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, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, 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 schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.
This position is a salary grade 6-8 and ranges from $85,400-$192,900.
Final determination of salary grade will be based on candidate's skills and experience, and base salary will be set within the applicable range according to job scope, responsibility and competitive market value.
For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/GSR
Visa sponsorship is available for this position.
Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status. In the United States, if you need a reasonable accommodation for the online application process due to a disability, please call 1-888-336-0660.
This position is hybrid. Candidates who are in commuting distance to a Ford hub location may be required to be onsite four or more days per week.
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About UsAt Ford Motor Company, we believe freedom of movement drives human progress. With our incredible plans for the future of mobility, we have a wide variety of opportunities for you to accelerate your career and help us define tomorrow’s transportation.About the TeamWe believe that freedom of movement drives human progress. Ford Information Technology (IT) is shaping the future of mobility by redefining the transportation landscape, enhancing the customer experience and improving people’s lives. Join the Ford family as we change the way the world moves.
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What We Do
Ford is a global company with shared ideals and a deep sense of family. From our earliest days as a pioneer of modern transportation, we have sought to make the world a better place – one that benefits lives, communities and the planet. We are here to provide the means for every person to move and pursue their dreams, serving as a bridge between personal freedom and the future of mobility. In that pursuit, our 186,000 employees around the world help to set the pace of innovation every day.
