Lead Software Test Engineer

We made history and now we work to transform the future – for our customers, our communities and our families. You'll see your work on the road every day, helping people move freely and pursue their dreams. At Ford, you can build more than vehicles. Come build what matters. Enterprise Technology plays a critical part in shaping the future of mobility. If you’re looking for the chance to leverage advanced technology to redefine the transportation landscape, enhance the customer experience and improve people’s lives, this is the opportunity for you. Join us and challenge your IT expertise and analytical skills to help create vehicles that are as smart as you are. In this position... We are seeking an experienced Lead Software Test Engineer to govern, coordinate, and accelerate testing and release cycles across our enterprise programs. In this role, you will be the core driver of release readiness, acting as the bridge between Product Driven Organizations (PDOs), quality teams, and leadership to ensure smooth, predictable software deliveries. You will bring a solid background in Software Quality Assurance/Testing and Release Management, paired with working knowledge of test automation frameworks (any modern tool). Crucially, you possess an innovative mindset: you will leverage AI capabilities and workflow automation to identify bottlenecks, eliminate process waste, optimize phase gates, and drive continuous improvement across our end-to-end delivery lifecycle. What you'll do... Release Governance & Phase-Gate Management: Define, enforce, and govern entrance and exit criteria across all critical testing cycles: System Integration Testing (SIT), Regression, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Load & Performance (L&P), and Release Dry Runs. Serve as the quality gatekeeper, assessing release health and providing data-driven go/no-go recommendations to leadership. Test Cycle Preparation & PDO Coordination: Lead end-to-end release preparation and execution coordination across multiple cross-functional Product Driven Organizations (PDOs). Partner closely with product, engineering, and vendor test teams to align schedules, scope, environment availability, and dependencies. Drive Workflow Automation & AI-Driven Process Optimization: Proactively analyze the release lifecycle to identify bottlenecks, redundant steps, and process waste. Identify opportunities to introduce AI tools, GenAI, and process automation to streamline release workflows, optimize regression scoping, automate status tracking, and speed up cycle turnarounds. Environment, Data & Blocker Management: Facilitate daily triage meetings, track critical defects, and resolve blockers related to test environments and test data management (TDM) to keep test cycles on track. Manage and escalate cross-team risks and release dependencies before they impact delivery timelines. Quality Metrics, Dashboards & Leadership Visibility: Design, track, and maintain centralized release metrics (e.g., test execution velocity, defect aging, leakage, pass/fail trends, and release risk profiles). Provide clear, executive-ready visibility into release readiness and operational risks to senior stakeholders. Tool Evaluations & Compliance PoCs: Evaluate and run Proof of Concepts (PoCs) for emerging release coordination, quality governance, and workflow automation tools. Navigate corporate governance, security, and architecture review processes to get tools approved for enterprise adoption. You'll have... Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. 8+ years of total experience in Software Quality Assurance/Testing, with 3+ years leading Release Management or Test Delivery Coordination across complex enterprise programs. Testing & Automation Foundations: Hands-on or solid foundational experience with automated testing frameworks and tools (experience with tool such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Tricentis Tosca, Worksoft, Postman, etc.). Demonstrated track record