Ford GDIA (Unstructured Ingestion team) — sharing my experience for anyone considering this.

Was hired after a full-stack/backend-focused interview process. After joining, expectations quietly shifted to owning AI/ML pipelines and LLM workflows — things that were never evaluated or even mentioned during hiring. It felt like the org was still figuring out what kind of engineer it needed, and that confusion landed on the employees.

The culture was heavily perception-driven. Stakeholder visibility and escalation optics often mattered more than actual engineering output. Engineers could deliver real work and still be flagged for "lack of ownership" because expectations kept shifting without documentation.

What hit the hardest: being held accountable for outcomes of meetings I was never in. And once leadership's trust erodes, the performance process stops being about growth and starts being about building a record.

One more thing — the joining bonus clawback is calculated on the gross amount, not what you actually receive after tax. That gap is significant and comes as a shock during exit discussions.

If you're considering this team: ask very specifically during interviews what the actual day-to-day engineering expectations are. Don't assume the interview reflects the real role. It didn't for me.