Ford CTO Ken Washington (still left) is leaving the automaker for Amazon in July.
Ford
DETROIT – Ford Motor is dropping its main know-how officer to Amazon, marking an ongoing expertise struggle among the automotive and technology industries.
Ford verified Thursday that CTO Ken Washington, who joined Ford from Lockheed Martin in 2014, will be leaving the Detroit automaker. productive July 16. He will join Amazon as vice president of software program engineering in Sunnyvale, California, according to an internal worker memo presented by Ford.
Washington’s departure is a main blow for the automaker, which is accelerating billions of bucks in new investments for linked, electric powered and autonomous cars under a new turnaround prepare by CEO Jim Farley.
Jim Buczkowski — who has been liable for analysis and style of electrical and electronic units — will be having on interim accountability for Ford’s investigate and sophisticated engineering crew when a long-lasting successor for Washington is recognized, in accordance to the automaker.
Amazon did not immediately reply for remark on the seek the services of, which was 1st claimed by the Detroit No cost Push.
The automotive and technological innovation industries are increasingly battling for expertise with the emergence of connected motor vehicles and organizations from equally sides exploring and developing autonomous automobiles. Automotive start off-up providers these kinds of as Lucid and Rivian also are vying for best talent from the two sectors.
Tech organizations have been winning in modern yrs. Ford lost two advertising executives to Google and Fb in 2020. Typical Motors final 12 months also lost CFO Dhivya Suryadevara to electronic payments corporation Stripe. Ahead of that, Alicia Boler Davis — who led GM’s global production — left for Amazon.