Hardware Development Engineer – Sight Vertical

Ford Motor Company

. Report into the Sight Vertical Director with a matrix relationship into ATP Core and hardware, controls, cybersecurity and infrastructure experts .

Posted 10/7/2026full-timeRedford • Michigan • United StatesMid-LevelSenior💰 $85,400 - $192,900 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

Use this summary to align your resume positioning with the role.

Demonstrates expertise in specifying, testing, and deploying industrial cameras and machine vision hardware, with a strong focus on compliance with UL, cUL, and CE standards. Proficient in industrial networking concepts and capable of translating product requirements into hardware specifications for effective plant-floor integration.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Industrial Camera SpecificationMachine Vision Hardware DeploymentIndustrial Networking ConceptsUL, cUL, and CE ComplianceCross-Functional Communication

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Industrial CamerasMachine Vision HardwareData-Acquisition HardwareEthernetGigEDynamic DNSDHCPTCP/IPPLC InterfacingParametric Condition Monitoring

Soft Skills

Cross-Functional CommunicationProblem-Solving

Tools & Technologies

Industrial PCsNVIDIA ProductsMQTTCloud Image StorageGCP

Certifications & Qualifications

UL ComplianceCUL ComplianceCE Certification

Industry Keywords

ManufacturingAutomotivePlant-Floor ExperienceEdge Compute DevicesNetwork Segmentation

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

CloudCyber SecurityDNSGoogle Cloud PlatformTCP/IP

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Report into the Sight Vertical Director with a matrix relationship into ATP Core and hardware, controls, cybersecurity and infrastructure experts
Work across Sight.Sense and Sight.Vision product streams as a senior individual contributor
Support product engineering teams and collaborate with the Applied AI Vision Lead, Heads of Product Family, software engineering and plant deployment teams
Own end-to-end camera specifications, including resolution, lenses, field of view, working distance and lighting requirements
Evaluate and qualify camera vendors and models against plant-floor environmental conditions
Define and maintain hardware bills of material for scalable station builds
Specify sensing and signal-acquisition hardware, including sensors, mounting, retrofits, signal conditioning and acquisition rates
Define hardware BOM standards for Sense installations and establish repeatable deployment patterns
Specify, test and validate industrial PCs, edge boxes, messaging architecture and parameter acquisition systems
Own hardware-side network requirements, including Ethernet, GigE, jumbo frames and packet-loss testing
Specify controls interfaces, power supply mechanisms, power drops and supporting infrastructure
Manage edge-device procurement, provisioning, refresh cycles and lifecycle
Develop hardware strategies for standalone and shared Sight deployments
Lead environmental, network and integration validation testing before plant rollout
Own UL, cUL and CE compliance requirements and documentation
Support cybersecurity, OGC and Corporate Ergonomics reviews and sign-offs
Provide hardware evidence for TRL and MRL maturity gates
Establish fleet management for inventory, firmware, health monitoring, certificates, warranties and end-of-life replacement
Define hardware-side capture, buffering and egress requirements for data storage and retention
Serve as hardware escalation point for plant-floor camera, sensor, edge-device and network issues
Drive root-cause analysis, corrective actions and recurring hardware failure reduction
Support Sight.IQ, Vision.Scout, StampGuard and Sense product lines
Translate product and algorithm requirements into hardware specifications with product leadership and engineering teams

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechatronics or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
5+ years of hands-on experience specifying, testing or deploying industrial cameras, machine vision hardware, industrial sensors and data-acquisition hardware, or edge compute devices
Working knowledge of industrial networking concepts, including Ethernet/GigE, network switches, jumbo frames and packet-level troubleshooting
Knowledge of Dynamic DNS, DHCP and TCP/IP
Familiarity with UL, cUL and CE safety and regulatory certification processes
Experience with industrial vision messaging and integration protocols such as MQTT
PLC interfacing concepts
Strong cross-functional communication skills and comfort working with software engineers, product managers and plant-floor personnel
Experience retrofitting hardware onto in-production manufacturing equipment without disrupting output
Fluent professional English
International travel availability to Ford manufacturing sites, ATP hubs and supplier or equipment run-off locations
Preferred: experience with industrial PCs and NVIDIA products for AI applications
Preferred: experience supporting hardware fleets at scale across multiple manufacturing sites
Preferred: familiarity with cloud image storage and retention pipelines such as GCP
Preferred: manufacturing or automotive plant-floor experience
Preferred: experience developing and governing hardware standards, device, BOM and installation standards
Preferred: experience with parametric condition monitoring and acquisition hardware
Preferred: familiarity with OT network segmentation and plant-floor connectivity constraints
Preferred: additional European language, Spanish or German

Benefits

Comp & perks

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
Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement and fertility treatments
Vehicle discount program for employees and family members
Management leases
Tuition assistance
Established and active employee resource groups
Paid time off for individual and team community service
Generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year's Day
Paid time off
Option to purchase additional vacation time
Visa sponsorship
Relocation assistance