Data Scientist, Production Planning at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI, United States

Job description

• In this position...
• The Order Fulfillment Technology team is seeking a Data Scientist to design and deliver production-grade solutions that power our global supply-demand matching systems. This is a cross-disciplinary role where you will sit at the intersection of Data Science and Software Engineering. You will go beyond theoretical modeling to build scalable, end-to-end data products that directly influence Ford’s strategic direction.
• The primary focus of this role is high-accuracy demand forecasting and predictive modeling. You will be expected to translate business problems into analytical formulations. A key part of your success will be your ability to collaborate closely with software engineers and product owners, translating complex ML concepts into actionable solutions.

Responsibilities

• Demand Forecasting & Predictive Modeling: Develop, implement, and validate algorithms (e.g., Time-Series, Causal Inference, Optimization) tailored to demand forecasting and supply-chain efficiency.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner actively within a cross-disciplinary team to deliver analytics software. Contribute to technical specifications, participate in code reviews, and socialize results with non-technical business partners to foster data-driven decision-making.
• Full-Lifecycle Ownership: Co-own the end-to-end development process, from data sourcing and exploration to deployment.
• MLOps, Reliability & Monitoring: Build and maintain robust pipelines for scalable deployment and retraining. You will be responsible for the health of your models in production, including setting up proactive alerting and monitoring for data drift, bias, and accuracy.
• Visualization & Insights: Create visualizations to connect disparate data, find patterns, and tell engaging stories regarding market trends and supply constraints.
• Continuous Innovation: Research and stay updated on the latest developments in data science, machine learning, and analytics tools. Continuously identify and implement avenues for enhancing the efficiency, accuracy, and robustness of the team’s analytical output.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical field.
• Technical Experience: 3+ years of hands-on experience with Python, SQL, and Machine Learning/Optimization techniques.
• Collaborative Delivery: Proven ability to collaborate with software engineering teams to move models into production.
• Communication: Proven ability to translate real-world business problems into analytical formulations and interpret results for non-analytics partners.
• Advanced Degree: Master’s degree in a quantitative or technical field.
• Technical Domain Expertise: Expertise in Predictive Analytical Methods (e.g., Neural Networks, Ensemble Methods, Support Vector Machines) with experience in demand forecasting or market trend analysis.
• Production Experience: 2+ years of experience applying advanced statistical methods (e.g., Multivariate Analysis, Regressions, Cluster Analysis) within production-grade software.
• Quality Focus: Experience with testing strategies for ML, including bias detection and robustness checks.
• Optimization Expertise: Experience with optimization methods (e.g., linear programming, mixed-integer programming, heuristics) applied to supply chain or resource allocation problems.
• Software Engineering: Experience deploying and maintaining production software.
• Cloud Deployment: Experience deploying solutions in a cloud environment (GCP preferred).
• Industry Context: Familiarity with Automotive OEM data, dealer relationships, order fulfillment, or large-scale supply chain logistics.
• 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!

Skills

Required

• Python
• SQL
• Machine Learning
• Optimization techniques

Preferred

• Cloud deployment (GCP preferred)

Benefits

• 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 5 - salary grade 8 and ranges from $68,300-$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: New Hire Benefits