Sr Director, Developer Experience and Platform Engineering

Ford Motor Company is seeking a Senior Director for Developer Experience and Platform Engineering who will leverage deep engineering experience to lead platform strategy and architectural decision-making. This role involves ensuring that Developer Experience is integrated across the software lifecycle, emphasizing hands-on engineering, technical leadership, and collaboration across the organization.

Responsibilities:

• Own the technical vision, architecture, and roadmap for Developer Experience platforms, including: Developer portals and internal platform products CI/CD pipelines and code delivery systems Container-based developer and runtime environments, including orchestration and lifecycle management API platforms, service templates, and established “golden paths” Observability, reliability, and operational tooling
• Lead DevX platforms as products, with: Clear ownership and accountability Roadmaps informed by real developer needs Defined reliability, security, and service expectations
• Act as a hands-on technical leader: Review architecture, designs, and system patterns Apply practical engineering judgment to platform and tooling decisions Make informed trade-offs across scalability, security, reliability, and usability
• Provide deep technical leadership across polyglot engineering environments, spanning modern backend, frontend, mobile, data, and distributed systems technologies
• Apply strong understanding of multiple programming paradigms (object-oriented, functional, reactive, event-driven) to ensure DevX initiatives align with how engineers actually write and maintain code
• Be accountable for core repository strategy and health, including: Code organization and modularization Dependency, version, and release management Shared libraries, frameworks, and reuse patterns Secure, compliant contribution and governance models
• Influence and standardize code delivery practices across the organization, enabling: Consistent, automated, and high-quality build and release workflows Predictable delivery across both legacy and modern codebases Clear ownership and lifecycle management of shared repositories
• Define and own a multi-year Developer Experience strategy aligned with: Automotive and industrial software delivery constraints Safety, security, and regulatory requirements Operating at scale across global regions, time zones, and organizational boundaries A broad and evolving technology landscape, spanning legacy systems through modern and emerging (“bleeding-edge”) platforms
• Translate strategy into concrete engineering roadmaps and platform designs that can be executed incrementally and sustainably
• Ensure DevX initiatives reflect real developer workflows, operational constraints, and production realities
• Balance standardization and autonomy through well-designed paved paths that support consistency while enabling innovation
• Define, own, and continuously evolve Developer Experience KPIs that measure productivity, reliability, code quality, delivery performance, and developer sentiment
• Establish a DevX measurement framework that combines: Quantitative engineering metrics (e.g., lead time, deployment frequency, change failure rate, recovery time) Platform usage, adoption, and reliability signals Regular developer surveys and qualitative feedback mechanisms to identify friction and unmet needs
• Use DevX KPIs and survey insights to: Inform platform, tooling, and investment decisions Identify systemic bottlenecks across the software lifecycle Measure the effectiveness and impact of DevX initiatives over time Ensure metrics are used for continuous improvement, not individual performance management Provide clear executive-level visibility into Developer Experience health and trends
• Lead the responsible application of AI across the software development lifecycle, integrating AI-assisted capabilities such as: Code authoring, refactoring, and modernization assistance Automated code review and static analysis augmentation Test generation, defect detection, and coverage improvement Developer feedback and productivity tooling
• Ensure AI-enabled solutions: Improve code quality, maintainability, and developer experience Are integrated into existing developer workflows and CI/CD pipelines Meet enterprise standards for security, compliance, intellectual property protection, and ethical use
• Partner closely with: Product, Platform, and PDOs to align DevX platforms and tooling with delivery priorities, roadmaps, and outcomes Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Engineering Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Cybersecurity and Compliance teams Enterprise Architecture and Product Engineering
• Work with PDOs to ensure Developer Experience investments: Support predictable delivery and execution at scale Reduce friction across planning, build, test, and release phases Align technical capabilities with business and portfolio priorities Serve as a technical peer and trusted advisor to senior engineering, delivery, and infrastructure leaders Influence architecture, tooling, and delivery direction through technical credibility and delivery experience
• Embed Developer Experience into: Incident management and postmortems Reliability and SRE practices Secure software supply chain initiatives Change and release management
• Ensure DevX platforms and tooling are: Secure and resilient by default Observable and operated with production rigor Drive a culture of automation, self-service, and continuous engineering improvement

Requirements:

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, including significant hands-on development, system design, and production operations experience
• Direct involvement in building and operating complex, distributed systems
• Demonstrated ability to apply prior engineering experience to platform architecture, code delivery, and technical strategy
• Deep expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP), including production operations at scale
• Deep expertise in container-based platforms and orchestration technologies
• Deep expertise in CI/CD systems, developer tooling, and code delivery pipelines
• Deep expertise in polyglot software architectures and modern application frameworks
• Deep expertise in observability, reliability, and SRE practices
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Strong working knowledge of multi-cloud and hybrid architecture trade-offs
• Solid understanding of secure software supply chains
• Solid understanding of compliance and regulatory requirements common in automotive environments
• An engineering-first leader who has grown from hands-on engineer to senior technical leader
• Leads through technical depth, architectural judgment, and delivery experience
• Comfortable operating at executive-level strategy discussions
• Comfortable operating at deep technical and architectural detail
• Experienced in leading platform or infrastructure engineering organizations building real, production systems