Ford loses main technologies officer to Amazon in industry fight more than expertise

DETROIT – Ford Motor is getting rid of its chief technology officer to Amazon, marking an ongoing expertise battle in between the automotive and know-how industries.

Ford confirmed Thursday that CTO Ken Washington, who joined Ford from Lockheed Martin in 2014, will be leaving the Detroit automaker. helpful July 16. He will be a part of Amazon as vice president of software program engineering in Sunnyvale, California, according to an inner worker memo furnished by Ford.

Washington’s departure is a main blow for the automaker, which is accelerating billions of pounds in new investments for connected, electrical and autonomous automobiles under a new turnaround prepare by CEO Jim Farley.

Jim Buczkowski — who has been liable for research and structure of electrical and electronic techniques — will be taking on interim accountability for Ford’s research and highly developed engineering group though a long term successor for Washington is recognized, according to the automaker.

Amazon did not right away answer for comment on the seek the services of, which was initial described by the Detroit Cost-free Push.

The automotive and technology industries are increasingly battling for talent with the emergence of related vehicles and corporations from both of those sides researching and establishing autonomous vehicles. Automotive get started-up corporations these as Lucid and Rivian also are vying for leading talent from the two sectors.

Tech firms have been profitable in the latest years. Ford misplaced two promoting executives to Google and Fb in 2020. Typical Motors final year also missing CFO Dhivya Suryadevara to digital payments corporation Stripe. Prior to that, Alicia Boler Davis — who led GM’s worldwide manufacturing — remaining for Amazon.