Software Product Engineer

Ford Global Career Site
Dearborn, MI

The HMI Software Product Engineer (SPE) is a senior feature delivery leader within in-vehicle infotainment, responsible for translating product vision and design intent into executable software backlogs and driving end-to-end delivery across the in-vehicle digital experience. This includes the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) layers, as well as supporting middleware, services, and vehicle integration.

Operating at the intersection of Product, Design, and Engineering, the SPE plays a critical leadership role in aligning cross-functional teams and ensuring high-quality feature execution. This role requires a strong understanding of engineering systems and artifacts, enabling effective translation of product, technical, and UI/UX requirements into clear, actionable work items.

The SPE owns and drives backlog strategy and execution within Jira, including story creation, refinement, grooming, and triage. By incorporating Product Owner responsibilities, the SPE ensures well-defined acceptance criteria, alignment with program priorities, and readiness for implementation across multiple teams. This role is accountable for cross-team coordination, dependency and risk management, and integrated validation from concept through launch, ensuring predictable program execution and high-quality release outcomes.

With broad organizational influence, the SPE partners closely with Product Management, Digital Product Design, engineering scrum teams, and testing organizations to ensure seamless integration, feature readiness, and a consistent, customer-centric UI/UX experience across vehicle platforms.

  • Own the end-to-end engineering lifecycle for a set of features or digital experience domains from concept through release sign-off.
  • Define the product execution path by answering: “What should we build, why does it matter, and how do we build it the right way?”
  • Translate PRDs, design artifacts, and system behavior requirements into clear software deliverables — i.e. epics and sprint-ready user stories with clear acceptance criteria in Jira.
    Lead feasibility assessment, scope definition, and backlog readiness for PI planning; manage change/churn while protecting milestones.
  • Drive cross-functional alignment with Product, Digital Product Design, Architecture, Engineering, and Test to ensure shared understanding of intent, priorities, and dependencies.
    Define and manage feature dependencies and blockers across HMI, services, platform, and validation.
  • Validate end-to-end feature behavior on bench/vehicle through demos and product truth sessions; ensure implementation matches UX intent and functional expectations.
  • Lead defect triage and prioritization for owned features; drive issues to closure through root-cause direction, retest strategy, and stakeholder communication.
  • Maintain clear execution visibility via epic status summaries, risk registers/mitigation plans, and regular stakeholder updates.
  • Ensure test coverage alignment by reviewing/confirming that test cases map to story acceptance criteria and key edge cases.
  • Identify and define the logworthies and analytics instrumentation required for each feature.
     
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