Principal AI Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Michigan
Principal AI engineer roles in Michigan draw from the state's strong automotive AI push, with Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis building out machine learning infrastructure alongside Detroit-area tech firms and Ann Arbor startups. H-1B visa sponsorship is well-established in this sector, and Canadian nationals may qualify under the TN visa as engineers.
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Overview
At Ford, you’ll work on ideas that matter, alongside passionate people who want to make a global impact. Together, we’re shaping the next era of transportation—grounded in purpose, driven by progress. Make your move.
- Job Type: Full time
- Work Type: Hybrid
Our Marketing, Sales & Service organization advances the Ford reputation as a visionary vehicle and mobility services company and helps deliver a trusted customer experience. Use your marketing, sales and service expertise to turn data-driven insights into innovative solutions that enhance sales and customer loyalty. Join us and be the eyes, ears and voice of Ford.
In this position...
This role sits within the Yield Management Advanced Analytics team, focused on developing and maintaining sophisticated modeling and optimization capabilities that drive pricing and incentive strategy across the business. As part of the broader Yield Management organization, this team partners closely with sibling analytics products, data engineering, AI/ML engineering, and business stakeholders to deliver quantitative solutions that shape how the company prices vehicles, structures incentives, and manages portfolio risk.
The successful candidate will serve as a subject matter expert on our analytical products, translating complex business problems into rigorous quantitative solutions and owning their full lifecycle — from framework design through production deployment and ongoing maintenance. Solutions are delivered in whatever format best fits the need, often as always-on web applications (e.g., Python Dash apps), but also as ad-hoc analyses, or dashboards when appropriate. This position requires strong technical depth in statistical modeling, machine learning, and optimization, along with sound judgment in applying these methods to real business constraints. There is also room to explore emerging tools — such as agentic AI and LLM-based workflows — to enhance how solutions are built and delivered.
Critical questions this role will help answer include:
- Assessing portfolio risk and opportunity at the portfolio or nameplate level
- Assessing business impacts of different incentive tactics to support incentive planning
- Optimizing nameplate profitability or minimizing risk by adjusting entity-level pricing based on production, market demand, and operational constraints
- Supporting new model year launches, mid-year repricing, and short-term variable marketing adjustments
What you'll do...
Model Enhancement, Expansion & Maintenance
- Own the end-to-end lifecycle of complex predictive models and optimization frameworks, driving scheduled updates, continuous improvement, and maintenance using advanced statistical and machine learning methodologies
- Serve as subject matter expert for our analytical products, ensuring the accuracy of underlying data, calculation logic, and business assumptions
- Drive the transition of analytical frameworks into production-ready assets, focusing on deployment automation, operational stability, and delivering clean, modular, well-documented code
- Explore opportunities to apply emerging techniques, such as agentic AI or LLM-based tools, to improve modeling workflows or analytical delivery
Business Engagement & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner directly with business stakeholders to understand evolving needs and convert ambiguous business problems into well-defined analytical problems
- Communicate quantitative concepts into clear, actionable insights for both technical peers and business partners, ensuring analytical work translates into real business impact
- Execute rapid-response, ad-hoc analytical requests to support time-sensitive strategic decision-making
- Partner closely with data engineering, AI/ML engineering, and other analytics product teams within Yield Management to align data science capabilities with evolving business needs
You'll have...
- Master's degree in Data Science, Statistics, Economics/Econometrics, Mathematics, Operations Research, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related quantitative field
- 3+ years of experience in data analytics, AI/ML modeling, or related quantitative analysis
- Proficiency in one or more programming languages (Python, R, MATLAB, C/C++/C#, SAS), along with familiarity in ML/DL libraries and SQL
Even better, you may have...
- Ph.D. in Data Science, Statistics, Economics/Econometrics, Mathematics, Operations Research, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related quantitative field
- Demonstrated skills applying econometrics, statistics, and/or machine/deep learning techniques to large, structured and unstructured data sets
- Strong problem formulation and analytical rigor, with the ability to interpret and communicate model results
- Experience with web app frameworks (e.g., Dash, Flask, Streamlit), version control (Git), and cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, GCP)
- Curiosity or experience exploring agentic AI and LLM-based tools, with interest in applying them creatively to analytical workflows
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 childcare 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 salary grade 5-8, and ranges from $68,300-$192,900.
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.
Visa sponsorship 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.
This position is hybrid with a requirement to be onsite four or more days per week.
LI-Hybrid
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Principal AI Engineer Job Roles in Michigan
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Search Principal AI Engineer Jobs in MichiganPrincipal AI Engineer Jobs in Michigan: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for principal AI engineers in Michigan?
Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Stellantis are among the most active sponsors for senior AI and machine learning engineering roles in Michigan, driven by their autonomous vehicle and manufacturing intelligence programs. Beyond automotive, companies like Rocket Companies in Detroit and university-affiliated research spinouts in Ann Arbor have also demonstrated H-1B filing history for principal-level AI positions.
Which visa types realistically fit principal AI engineer roles in Michigan?
The H-1B is the primary path, since principal AI engineer roles qualify as specialty occupations requiring at least a bachelor's degree in a directly related field such as computer science or electrical engineering. Canadian and Mexican nationals may qualify under TN visa status as engineers under USMCA. Singaporean nationals can consider the H-1B1 visa, and Australian nationals the E-3 visa, both requiring an employer-filed Labor Condition Application.
Which cities in Michigan have the most principal AI engineer sponsorship jobs?
Detroit and its metro suburbs, particularly Dearborn and Troy, concentrate the most principal AI engineer sponsorship activity due to the headquarters presence of major automotive OEMs. Ann Arbor is a secondary hub, anchored by University of Michigan research partnerships and a growing cluster of AI-focused startups and spin-offs. Grand Rapids sees occasional postings but at a much lower volume than the Detroit metro.
How to find principal ai engineer visa sponsorship jobs in Michigan?
Migrate Mate lists Michigan employers with verified visa sponsorship history for AI and machine learning engineering roles, letting you focus on companies that have actually filed for positions at this seniority level. Searching by role and state on Migrate Mate surfaces active postings from automotive, technology, and research-sector employers across the Detroit metro and Ann Arbor without having to manually verify each company's sponsorship track record.
Are there state-specific factors that affect principal AI engineer sponsorship in Michigan?
Michigan's automotive transformation is a significant driver. Ford, GM, and Stellantis are investing heavily in AI infrastructure for autonomous systems and smart manufacturing, creating sustained demand for senior AI engineering talent that companies are willing to sponsor. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor also feeds a research-to-industry pipeline, meaning employers in the state are accustomed to hiring internationally trained engineers and navigating sponsorship processes at the principal level.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored principal ai engineer jobs in Michigan?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.