Application Delivery Manager

Who We Are: We are the Product Development (PD) Platform Operations team, the driving force behind Ford's next-generation infrastructure and software solutions. Our mission is to build scalable, highly available environments that empower our engineers to design and build the vehicles of the future. We thrive on innovation, embracing cutting-edge technologies and methodologies like Infrastructure-as-Code, Configuration-as-Code (powered by Ansible), and cloud-native development – all while using CI/CD methodologies.

Why Join Us? Join a tight knit, rapidly growing team that values collaboration, continuous learning, and a passion for pushing technological boundaries. Be at the forefront of modernizing Ford's core Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) processes and have a direct impact on the tools our engineers use every day.

This role is specifically within the Application Delivery portion of our team. You will be the champion and the driver of change for our deployed Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE (3DX) & Siemens Teamcenter platforms.

Job Description: We are seeking an experienced PLM Application Delivery Manager to lead our release governance, platform upgrades, software deployments, and operational stability initiatives. This pivotal leadership role will bridge the gap between technical infrastructure teams, development, hosting, and business stakeholders.

The ideal candidate excels at managing complex enterprise software releases while maintaining the deployments & customizations within our global PLM environments. You bring deep experience in ITIL change management, release governance, and stakeholder communication - translating technical complexity into clear business impact. negotiating downtime windows with senior leadership and diving into the details of a Teamcenter or 3DEXPERIENCE upgrade plan. A natural collaborator, you build trust across development, hosting, and business teams, and you thrive in a fast-paced environment where what we deliver and accountability both are important. This role is a people leader position but also technical. 

Release & Delivery Management

• End-to-End Release Management: Define and govern a consistent process for managing software and code changes, patches, and upgrades across the PLM landscape (Teamcenter & 3DEXPERIENCE)
• Coordination: Establish release calendars and facilitate communication between development teams to manage dependencies, minimize conflicts, and ensure testing through UAT are received prior to deployment
• Agile Delivery: Manage the lifecycle of proprietary internal tools, ensuring agile delivery of client updates and patches outside of major release windows to maintain business velocity
• Risk Mitigation: Serve as the primary point of contact for business leadership regarding planned downtime, negotiating windows that minimize disruption to global operations
• Incident Management: Serve as the primary incident for PLM platform outages — coordinating rapid response across hosting, development, and supplier teams, driving root cause analysis, and ensuring timely, professional communication to business stakeholders throughout the incident lifecycle
• Legacy Management: Oversee the maintenance and eventual decommissioning of legacy applications, ensuring data integrity during sunsetting phases
• Communication Management: Build professional, enterprise-grade email communications for all platform releases, outages, and deliverables

Upgrade & Lifecycle Management

• Upgrade Orchestration: Serve as the directly responsible individual for upgrade management across all 3DEXPERIENCE and Teamcenter platforms within Ford Motor Company, including full upgrade releases and feature/patch releases
• Change Management: Work and coordinate with hosting, central, and business teams on any changes that are scoped, planned, and executed across the PLM landscape — ensuring all modifications follow ITIL-aligned change management processes, are properly documented, and carry appropriate approvals prior to implementation
• Endpoint Software Deployment: manage the packages that are deployed globally to our Ford engineers utilizing our PLM software 

Customization & Releases

• Custom Changes: Our platforms are heavily customized to meet Ford's unique engineering requirements. You will govern the lifecycle of all custom development — from requirements intake and prioritization through testing, deployment, and documentation — ensuring changes are delivered safely and do not compromise platform stability or upgrade readiness

Capacity Planning & Team Leadership

• Resource Management: Lead capacity planning efforts, utilizing Jira to track team bandwidth, forecast constraints, and assign resources effectively against business priorities
• Audit Leadership: Serve as the lead for IT audits, ensuring full compliance with GRC, IFAR, and ASAR requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent work experience
• 8+ years of experience in Platform Lifecycle Management (PLM) Operations, Release Management, or Service Delivery
• 5+ years leading or managing technical teams in an enterprise environment
• Extensive experience with Siemens Teamcenter and/or Dassault 3DEXPERIENCE architecture and deployment
• Experience working in a fast pace, flexible industrial system team like Ford Motor Company
• Expert level experience with utilizing large language models and artificial intelligence 

Technical Skills:

• Infrastructure Proficiency: Strong understanding of server operations (Linux/Windows), OS patching cycles, and network security (SSL/Firewalls).
• DevOps Tooling: Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, Tekton, GitHub Actions) and Infrastructure-as-Code (Ansible/Terraform) to oversee automated deployments.
• Project Management Tools: Expert-level proficiency in Jira for backlog management, capacity planning, and reporting.
• Scripting Knowledge: Ability to understand and guide teams using scripting languages (PowerShell, Bash, Python) for automation tasks.

Leadership Skills:

• Strategic Communication: Proven ability to translate technical constraints into business impacts for senior leadership.
• Process Rigor: Deep understanding of ITIL change management principles and audit compliance (GRC/SOX).
• Problem Solving: Excellent troubleshooting skills with a focus on root cause analysis and preventative measures.
• Collaboration: Demonstrated success in building relationships across Development, Infrastructure, and Business teams to deliver projects under aggressive timelines.

Licenses and Certifications:

• ITIL Certification (Preferred)
• SAFe / Agile Certification (Preferred)

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!

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 leadership level 6 and ranges from $129,600-244,680. 

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: https://fordcareers.co/LL6

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Relocation IS 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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