Director, Health Care Benefits

As part of our Human Resources team, you’ll help us attract, hire and retain the top talent we need to achieve our bold vision. You’ll play a vital role in defining, developing and maintaining the winning culture that empowers diverse individuals to work together and create the impossible. We’re seeking change leaders, talent strategists, employee advocates and culture architects to enable our teams, partners, and businesses to do and be their best.

In this position...

We are seeking an experienced and strategic Director, Health Care Benefits to lead the design, evolution, and administration of Ford's health care benefits programs. This leader will be responsible for setting the future direction for our health care benefits, ensuring they are comprehensive, competitive, cost-effective, and aligned with Ford's overall business objectives and employee needs.

This leader will shape Ford's benefits strategy and lead a team committed to operational excellence, delivering seamless administration, full compliance, and outstanding employee experience. The ideal candidate will possess a deep understanding of the evolving health care landscape, a proven track record in strategic benefits planning, the ability to deliver operational excellence through strong team leadership, and exceptional skills in cross-functional collaboration and labor relations. An important component of this role involves leading health care benefit negotiations with our union partners, proposing solutions that meet the needs of both the company and our union-represented employees.

This role is hybrid and requires at least 4 days onsite in the Dearborn, MI office.

You'll have...

• Bachelor's degree preferably in Human Resources, Business Administration, Health Care Administration, or a related field (Master's preferred).
• Minimum of 10-15 years of progressive experience in employee benefits, with at least 7-10 years focused specifically on health care benefits strategy, design, and administration in a large, complex organization (Fortune 500 or comparable experience strongly preferred).

Even better, you may have...

• Demonstrated experience leading or significantly contributing to health care benefit negotiations within a unionized environment; experience with major industrial unions (., UAW) is highly desirable.
• Extensive experience with vendor selection, contract negotiation, and performance management in the health care benefits space.
• Proven ability to balance strategic vision with operational execution—candidates must be comfortable setting strategy AND ensuring their team delivers flawless execution.
• Strong track record of building and leading teams to achieve both strategic and operational excellence.
• In-depth knowledge of federal and state benefits legislation (., ACA, COBRA, HIPAA, ERISA) and compliance requirements.
• Strong analytical and financial management skills with the ability to interpret complex data, perform scenario modeling, and make data-driven recommendations.
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively with all levels of the organization, including senior leadership and union leadership.
• Proven leadership, coaching, and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and lead cross-functional initiatives in a fast-paced environment.
• Professional certification such as CEBS (Certified Employee Benefit Specialist) or similar.
• Experience with self-insured health plans, actuarial valuation processes, and claims analytics.
• Experience in the automotive, manufacturing, or other heavily unionized industries.

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 leadership level 5.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.