Product Manager, Inbound

The Product Manager for Inbound Logistics will lead North America inbound logistics product strategy and execution for mission-critical supply chain and logistics technology within Ford’s Enterprise Technology organization. The role focuses on continuous improvements across logistics operations, inventory management, and plant reception through digital automation, platform integration, and in-plant automation roadmaps.

What you’ll do

• Own and maintain a multi-year “Now, Near, Far” product roadmap for North America Inbound Logistics, aligning application evolution with plant operational priorities and enterprise supply chain objectives.
• Define target-state architectures to rationalize, modernize, and decommission fragmented legacy logistics applications across the regional portfolio.
• Drive evaluation, pilot deployments, and scaling of emerging capabilities, including Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and Agentic AI, to support intelligent plant-floor decisioning and automated material movement.
• Set measurable business KPIs and Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), including dock turn times, yard dwell time, inventory visibility accuracy, and demurrage reduction, to quantify product value and ROI.
• Serve as the dedicated Product Manager for mission-critical logistics applications, including Yard Management Systems (YMS), Inbound Logistics Service Layer (ILSL), Premium Portal, Disputed Excess Transportation Cost (DETC), and Transportation Management System (TMS).
• Define product scope, data flows, and technical integration requirements connecting plant, vendor, and enterprise platforms, including C-I-A ratings.
• Partner closely with Enterprise Architecture to ensure secure, scalable, and resilient data exchanges between shop-floor hardware, warehouse platforms, and enterprise ERPs (APIs, event streams, and EDI).
• Lead cross-functional software delivery teams (engineers, solution architects, UX designers, data analysts) across the product development lifecycle using Agile/Scrum practices.
• Own the product backlog by prioritizing work, authoring epics and user stories with acceptance criteria, and leading sprint planning, refinement, and reviews.
• Manage end-to-end rollout plans, including System Integration Testing, cutover execution, pilot deployments, and hypercare support across North American manufacturing facilities.
• Provide technical leadership during planned operational deployments and critical weekend go-lives or plant shutdown windows as needed.
• Collaborate with software vendors, third-party system integrators, and equipment partners, including dock automation and AMR hardware vendors.
• Establish, monitor, and enforce Service Level Agreements (SLAs), software performance metrics, contract deliverables, and platform release cycles.
• Evaluate vendor feature release notes, plan platform upgrades and enhancements, and champion architectural improvements to reduce technical debt, including completing SIT and requirements such as Dynatrace alerting and ServiceNow MTTA/MTTR to reduce risk of near misses or production impact.
• Spend time on the plant floor through gemba walks to understand physical material flows, Just-in-Time (JIT)/ Just-in-Sequence (JIS) constraints, and dock bottlenecks.
• Build trusted partnerships with key stakeholders across Material Planning & Logistics (MP&L), Plant Operations Managers, Industrial Engineering, carrier logistics providers, and compliance teams.
• Drive operational readiness and change management through standard operating procedures (SOPs), user training materials, and continuous feedback loops to support adoption of newly deployed digital tools.

What you bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Industrial Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of progressive experience in software management, supply chain, materials management, or logistics within automotive or manufacturing environments.
• Experience leading vendor support teams in a plant or distribution environment.
• Strong knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, Just-in-Time (JIT) principles, and inventory control systems (CMMS/MMP).
• 5+ years managing vendors, SLAs, enhancements, and upgrades.
• Excellent problem-solving, negotiation, and communication skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment, including flexibility to support weekend activities when needed.

Technologies you’ll work with

• Yard Management Systems (YMS), Inbound Logistics Service Layer (ILSL), Premium Portal, Disputed Excess Transportation Cost (DETC), Transportation Management System (TMS), EWM, ISDP, Rite-Hite dock management, and Control Tower / Bid Board ecosystems
• APIs, event streams, EDI, Agile/Scrum
• Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), Agentic AI
• System Integration Testing, Dynatrace, ServiceNow, MTTA/MTTR, SOPs
• Just-in-Time (JIT), Just-in-Sequence (JIS), Lean Manufacturing, CMMS/MMP

Location and work setup

• Location: Dearborn, MI (hybrid)
• Work type: Full time, hybrid
• Onsite expectation: onsite four or more days per week

Compensation and eligibility

• Salary range: USD 115,000 - 192,900 per year
• Salary grade 8; final determination depends on skills and experience, with base salary set within the applicable range.
• Visa sponsorship: not available for this position.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, and subsidized back-up child care
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members, plus management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• Paid holidays including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time

In this role, you will operate within Enterprise Technology - Supply Chain & Compliance, leading continuous performance improvements across logistics, inventory management, and plant reception, while shaping future state in-plant automation through architectural standards and adoption roadmaps for AMRs and modernization of legacy infrastructure.