Product Development Supervisor – Problem Solver, Prevent Recurrence

Ford Motor Company

Lead a team of engineers resolving design-related issues at Ford Motor Company. Oversee complex problem-solving and drive improvements in product development quality.

Posted 6/17/2026full-timeDearborn • Missouri • 🇺🇸 United StatesMid-LevelSenior💰 $112,680 - $212,760 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Swift

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Team Leadership: Oversee and guide a team of problem solving engineers (Six Sigma Black Belts) leading root cause investigations on high-impact design concerns for all commodities across all platforms.
Mentoring: Actively coach your team to foster a culture of continuous learning, active listening, and collaborative development.
Enable Data-Driven Decisions: Foster a high-performance management style that values diverse perspectives while driving swift, objective, and data-backed decisions.
Talent Development: Build technical and leadership capability within the team, helping engineers grow into future technical leaders and organizational influencers.
Lead Complex Issue Resolution: Oversee and guide a team that guides and coaches cross-functional engineering teams through structured, data-driven problem-solving methodologies to diagnose and resolve complex, design-related issues.
Collaborative Problem Solving: Drive a culture of 'solving together.' Move away from independent-contributor silos, instead leveraging experts and cross-functional teams for data-backed insights.
Methodology & Logic Oversight: Ensure your team properly leverages advanced problem-solving methodologies to identify specific root causes, focus on understanding detection errors and judging if systemic prevent recurrence actions are appropriate and sufficient.
Design Improvement & Prevent Recurrence: Develop direction for robust preventive actions to eliminate both specific and systemic recurrence of design issues to ensure: no future repeats, strengthen future designs, improve engineering processes, and reduce the likelihood of future customer concerns.
Root Cause Verification: Ensure root cause is verified to cover 100% of affected units to ensure no experiences remain unsolved.
Logical Approaches: Promote and integrate advanced strategic problem-solving logic and DFSS principles early in the product development phase to prevent issues before they occur.
Lessons Learned Integration: Ensure learnings from investigations are effectively incorporated into policies, methods and procedures.
Document Quality: Review and ensure documentation meets required expectations for approval of problem-solving reports to maintain high standards of technical logic and complete understanding of the issue.
Workload Management: Triage incoming work requests, prioritize 'what matters' high-impact engineering challenges to deliver results, and assign resources effectively.
Process Standardization: Collaborate as part of the leadership team maintaining standard department processes are in place to improve quality (continuous improvement mindset for: department processes, tools and standards that support engineering excellence and quality outcomes).
Operational Leadership: Conduct staff meetings and manage normal business such as any travel cadence for your team (typically less than 10% within North America).

Requirements

What you’ll need

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (such as Mechanical, Electrical, Software, or Systems Engineering) with a focus on design rather than manufacturing or process.
Certification: Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (or equivalent structured problem-solving certification/credential).
Core Skills:
Demonstrated Problem-Solving Proficiency: Strong training or knowledge in strategic problem-solving methodologies, combined with hands-on experience using structured, data-driven methods to resolve complex design issues.
Proven Leadership Skills & Experience: Demonstrated history of leading, mentoring, and coaching engineering teams. This can be through direct supervisory experience OR a strong track record of guiding project teams.
Strong Communication & Effective Listening Skills: Ability to listen actively, explain complex technical issues in simple terms, and present clear, actionable summaries to leadership.
Even Better If You Have...
Design-Focused Problem Solving: Experience utilizing strategic problem solving logic, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), or advanced systems-engineering methodologies to prevent issues during the product development phase.
Direct People Leadership: Prior experience as a formal people leader with direct report employees (in addition to matrix or cross-functional team leadership).
Advanced Education & Certification: Master’s degree in Engineering and/or a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt.
Management Style: Proven history of leading employees to perform at a high level, growing employee capabilities, and listening to all perspectives to make swift, data-driven decisions.
Time in Position: 5+ years of experience in a product development environment, with a specific focus on diagnosing and solving design-related root causes.
Experience: Preventing specific and systemic recurrence of design issues (including analyzing detection errors in design verification).
Knowledge: Product Development processes and regulatory compliance standards.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
Relocation Assistance not 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.

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Hard Skills & Tools

Six SigmaDesign for Six Sigma (DFSS)strategic problem-solving methodologiesdata-driven decision makingroot cause analysisdesign improvementcomplex issue resolutionengineering processesproduct developmentregulatory compliance

Soft Skills

team leadershipmentoringcollaborative problem solvingstrong communicationeffective listeningtalent developmentworkload managementprocess standardizationlogical approacheslessons learned integration

Certifications

Certified Six Sigma Black BeltCertified Six Sigma Master Black Belt