Sr. Staff Vehicle Systems Architect

About Us

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is a joint venture between two industry leaders with a clear vision for automotive’s next chapter. From operating systems to zonal controllers to cloud and connectivity solutions, we’re addressing the challenges of electric vehicles through technology that will set the standards for software-defined vehicles around the world.

The road to the future is uncharted. By combining our expertise across connectivity, AI, security and more, we’ll map a new way forward. Working together, we’ll create a future that’s more connected, more intelligent, more sustainable for everyone.

Role Summary

The Vehicle System Architecture team owns the vehicle-level mechatronic architecture at Rivian VW Group Technologies. We translate product intent from Brand Product Definition, Program, Cost Engineering, Manufacturing, Strategy and Reliability into parts and function distribution across the vehicle — from product concept through manufacturing.

You are accountable for the architecture of a platform program to sequences on the manufacturing line. You lead the actual architecture — where functions live, which controllers exist, what the vehicle can do without. You build the models and processes that let those decisions be made with data and are reused across programs.

Responsibilities

1. Own the Vehicle Architecture

• Lead the vehicle-level architecture for a platform program: controllers and placement, functional allocation across ECUs, LV/HV distribution concept, sensor and actuator distribution, packaging, temperature/environmental and NVH constraints — from concept through production release.

• Lead architecture trade studies with quantified outcomes: cost, mass, range, power, temperature, NVH, complexity, reliability and manufacturability. Derive the cost functions —Trade studies ship with its model, parameters and sensitivity.

• Cost-down by subtraction before optimization: use the model to prove which controllers, harness runs, sensors and requirements the vehicle can do without, and remove them before tuning what's left.

• Translate ambiguous partner asks into architecture decisions and hold them at program gates; own the architecture decision record and its rationale.

• Align architecture to technology roadmaps — evaluating when to adopt new tech, and what it costs the platform.

• Close the loop with the physical vehicle: define the correlation and characterization tests that validate the models, and own each model's error budget.

2. Build the Models and Tooling Behind the Decisions

• Curate and decide first: define the design space — what is fixed, what is free, which attributes matter — select the candidate architectures, weigh the trades and make the call. Then build the AI-assisted pipelines that widen the search: proposing controller allocations, harness topologies and function distributions.

• Build and own the meta-models that connect the architecture: feature → function → controller → physical interface → software interface, with parameters flowing end to end.

• Author first-principles and stack-up models (Python, Julia/Modelica, C++; SysML v2 where it earns its keep) at the fidelity the decision demands. Collaborate with domain systems engineers on correlated models for lock.

• Drive reliability by design: top-down from vehicle attributes and bottom-up from component data.

• Lead the vehicle-level STPA as a design process — surfacing hazards and architecture-level control gaps early and feeding them back into the model — rather than as a gate. As the team matures, that process becomes the basis for quality enforcement.

3. Technical Leadership and Department-Wide Impact

• Negotiate the architecture with VW Group, Rivian brand teams and partner functions and anticipate the next platform's constraints.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with Electrical System Architecture, Software System Architecture and the sub-system domain systems leads.

• Set the method: codify how the team does trade studies, meta-modelling and WCCA beyond electrical; author the playbooks and templates; mentor engineers; review their models and decisions.

• Publish the models and requirements as a source of truth that other teams build on.

• Convert recurring analyses into tooling and AI-assisted pipelines so the team scales with programs.

What You Will Deliver

In the first program cycle you own:

• The vehicle architecture boundary diagram(s).

• The vehicle-level STPA, or the integrated set of feature STPAs and DFMEAs that stands in for it, with findings traced into the architecture and its model.

• Architecture decisions cascaded to feature leads in Flow Engineering, each carrying its data- or analysis-driven rationale — and the working relationship with those leads that makes the cascade stick.

• Deep collaboration on a correlated parametric vehicle model, validated against physical characterization, with a known error budget.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• BS/MS in Electrical, Mechanical, Systems, Aerospace or Computer Engineering, or an equivalent demonstrated record.

• 12+ years in automotive, aerospace or electromechanical systems engineering, including at least one full program cycle owning system- or vehicle-level architecture decisions from concept to production.

• Demonstrated first-principles and stack-up modelling: you have built the physics or system model that decided an architecture. AI assistance is welcome, not required.

• Fluency across at least two of — E/E architecture (zonal, LV/HV power, network), vehicle controls SW, thermal and packaging, mechanical integration.

• Worst-case and tolerance analysis practice (WCCA, Monte Carlo, DOE) applied to real designs.

• Strong Python; comfortable in C++ or Julia/Modelica/Spice; git-native.

• Ability to bind ambiguous asks into decisions and defend them with numbers to executives and Brands.

Preferred Qualifications

• Systems-of-systems and meta-modelling experience: SysML v2, FMI/FMU co-simulation, parameter management across model hierarchies.

• Hands-on with LLM or agentic tooling applied to engineering artifacts — pipelines that generate or analyze designs.

• Cost engineering fluency — should-cost, BOM roll-ups, design-to-cost trades.

• STPA, FTA, ISO 26262 concept phase.

• Model correlation and test characterization experience — you have made a simulation earn its keep against hardware.

• Experience building or shipping engineering tooling — internal platforms, AI-assisted analysis pipelines.

Total Rewards

We build the exceptional — and we believe the people doing that work should be rewarded accordingly. In addition to a competitive base salary, full-time positions may be is eligible to participate in our annual company performance bonus program.

Payments are discretionary and not guaranteed; actual amounts depend on company results and the terms of the plan in effect, and require active employment at the time of payout. This role is also eligible for equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), subject to board approval and the terms of our equity incentive plans, including applicable vesting requirements.