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

Ford confirmed Thursday that CTO Ken Washington, who joined Ford from Lockheed Martin in 2014, might be leaving the Detroit automaker efficient July 16. He’ll be a part of Amazon as vp of software program engineering in Sunnyvale, California, based on an inside worker memo offered by Ford.

Washington’s departure is a significant blow for the automaker, which is accelerating billions of {dollars} in new investments for related, electrical and autonomous automobiles underneath a brand new turnaround plan by CEO Jim Farley.

Jim Buczkowski, who has been chargeable for analysis and design {of electrical} and digital programs, might be taking up interim accountability for Ford’s analysis and superior engineering crew whereas a everlasting successor for Washington is recognized, based on the automaker.

Amazon didn’t instantly reply for touch upon the rent, which was first reported by the Detroit Free Press.

The automotive and know-how industries are more and more battling for expertise with the emergence of related automobiles and corporations from either side researching and creating autonomous automobiles. Automotive start-up corporations akin to Lucid and Rivian are also vying for prime expertise from each sectors.

Tech corporations have been successful in recent times. Ford misplaced two advertising executives to Google and Facebook in 2020. General Motors final 12 months additionally misplaced CFO Dhivya Suryadevara, digital funds firm Stripe, and, earlier than that, Alicia Boler Davis, who led GM’s world manufacturing, to Amazon.