Technical Placement Manager
***Remote with 50% travel nationwide***
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.
What you'll do...
The Technical Placement Manager (TPM) provides strategic leadership for a national team of approximately 65 personnel—comprising 5 Market Area Coordinators and 60 Technical Placement Specialists—dedicated to optimizing innovative strategies (i.e., - technician recruitment and retention) for the Ford and Lincoln Dealer Network. In this role, the TPM orchestrates high-level coordination and strategic planning with dealers, technicians, vendors, and internal stakeholders to meet objectives. By analyzing market trends and leveraging strategic partners, the TPM designs and implements robust sourcing strategies that align the "Always On" hiring model with an unwavering focus on technician retention within the Ford and Lincoln networks.
Team Leadership & Development:
- Lead, coach, and develop a national field team to drive performance against key business metrics
- Establish a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and measurable results
Strategy & Execution:
- Design and execute national strategies for technician recruiting, retention, and recognition
- Align workforce initiatives with broader dealer network and organizational goals
Data & Insights:
- Own the end-to-end data and analytics strategy for technician recruiting, retention, and workforce performance, ensuring decisions are grounded in measurable outcomes and aligned to business objectives
- Own the end-to-end financial strategy and performance ensuring decisions are fiduciarily responsible
- Aggregate, analyze, and synthesize data across multiple systems to evaluate program effectiveness and identify gaps in the technician and dealer pipeline
- Develop and maintain advanced KPI frameworks that go beyond activity metrics to measure true business impact, including technician/dealer readiness, retention quality, hiring efficiency, and long-term workforce sustainability
- Translate complex and often fragmented data into clear, compelling narratives that articulate the “story” of workforce performance, influencing senior leadership, dealer partners, and cross-functional stakeholders
- Identify trends, risks, and opportunities through proactive data analysis, using insights to inform recruiting strategies, retention initiatives, and resource allocation decisions
- Partner with field teams and vendors to ensure data integrity, consistency, and actionable reporting, driving accountability across all stakeholders
- Leverage insights to continuously refine and evolve processes, ensuring programs are adaptive, scalable, and responsive to changing market dynamics
- Establish a forward-looking workforce intelligence approach, using data to anticipate future technician demand, capacity constraints, and skill gaps
- Drive a culture of data fluency and accountability across the organization, enabling teams to make informed, insight-driven decisions at all levels
Process Development & Implementation:
- Build and implement scalable processes to improve consistency, efficiency, and outcomes
- Lead training and rollout efforts to ensure adoption and sustained execution across the field
Vendor & Field Services Management:
- Manage key vendor relationships, ensuring performance, accountability, and ROI
- Oversee field-based service delivery and lead Quarterly Business Reviews
Talent Acquisition & Hiring Leadership:
- Guide and influence best-in-class hiring practices across the network
- Support talent selection, onboarding, and workforce planning efforts
Field Engagement & Market Intelligence:
- Identify opportunities through dealer visits, market insights, and industry engagement
- Support technician recruiting and recognition initiatives at the local and national level
Training & Onboarding:
- Develop and enhance onboarding and training programs for field teams
- Partner with vendors to ensure successful enablement and performance ramp-up
You'll have...
- Bachelor’s degree required
- 10+ years of experience in workforce strategy, field operations, recruiting, or related functions, including 7+ years of direct experience working with field-based or dealership teams.
- 7+ years of experience leading, coaching, and developing high-performing, distributed teams, driving measurable business results.
- Strong understanding of dealership Parts and Service operations, including technician productivity, service capacity, and workforce planning.
- Advanced analytical skills, with experience aggregating, interpreting, and synthesizing complex data into actionable insights; able to leverage AI tools to optimize recruiting, retention, and workforce processes.
- Skilled in translating complex data into compelling narratives to influence senior leadership, cross-functional teams, and dealership partners.
- Demonstrated success in process development, implementation, and training rollout across distributed teams, ensuring adoption and measurable outcomes.
- Experience managing external vendors and field-based service providers with accountability for performance, ROI, and operational results.
Even better, you may have...
- Master’s degree in a relevant field.
- 12+ years of hands-on experience in automotive service ecosystems, including dealer operations, service engineering, warranty/claims, and field quality management
- Experience managing field quality concerns, including issue investigation, containment, and resolution.
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 $115,500-$218,100.
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.
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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