Hardware Systems Validation Architect - Infotainment

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

In this position, you will lead efforts within the Hardware Systems Architecture team to characterize performance of low-voltage electrical (LVE) systems in Rivian vehicles, with the aim to drive hardware architecture decision-making in early development stages, and to validate system designs in later stages of the development cycle. This is a hardware architecture role that requires a familiarity with systems software necessary to identify, and quantify system-level performance metrics, anticipate key design risks, and validate system architecture performance against requirements. This role spans the characterization of computational, network, sensor, and power related performance dimensions of various LVE subsystems, including infotainment, telematics, wireless connectivity, networking, passive entry, camera monitoring systems, and more.

Responsibilities

• Drive the collaboration between hardware architecture, hardware design and software application teams to create comprehensive characterization plans that surface key performance metrics, provide insight into system bottlenecks and chokepoints, reveal over-/under-design scenarios, and validate system performance relative to system requirements.

• Work cross-functionally to factor high-level functional and performance requirements into their respective sub-systems, distill them into clear system architecture performance requirements capable of validation, and evolve these requirements into future architecture.

• Lead and support the design, integration and automation efforts related to characterization and validation activities on various hardware testing configurations, including early prototypes boards, bench-top sub-system mock-ups, lab cars, mules, and other HIL infrastructure.

• Orchestrate the end-to-end development of systems and automation for performance characterization ranging from development of requirements to identification of solutions and their implementation, including integration of h/w and s/w, establishment of control and data acquisition pipelines, and development of downstream data processing infrastructure.

• Execute characterization plans, leverage analytical methods, and present clear validation metrics and reports that support data-driven architectural decisions, and validate the resulting designs.

• Contribute to mock-ups or prototypes to study next-gen technologies, establish proofs-of-concept, and/or serve as reference platforms for future bring up, system integration, system-level validation, or future architecture inclusion.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or a related field, and a track record of 7+ years of hands-on experience in relevant practical settings.

• Experience designing and/or validating embedded systems optimized for distributed architecture settings, including automotive, aerospace, or other architecturally similar applications.

• Strong understanding of embedded computing platforms, and the methods for quantifying performance of their processors, memory / storage systems, and peripheral interfaces.

• Conversant with software platforms for embedded computing architectures typical in automotive applications like infotainment, wireless connectivity, telematics, or ADAS, ranging from OS to RTOS to bare-metal, and respective performance measurement methodologies.

• Solid grasp of the power related aspects of distributed embedded architectures, with focus on efficient low-power states, wake propagation and sequencing.

• Some familiarity with camera sensors, and/or downstream processing pipelines, including their data formats, ISPs, DSPs, and how to characterize key performance aspects.

• Deep understanding of on- and off-board high-speed automotive interfaces and networks, such as PCIe, GMSL, FPD-Link, Ethernet, A2B, USB, CAN-FD, and how to characterize their utilization and performance.

• Hands-on coding experience related to some combination of embedded platform bring-up, system software / applications development, or system-level hardware performance instrumentation, and related test automation / scripting.

• Conversant with wireless technologies like BLE, LTE, 5G, and/or Wi-Fi, and their performance evaluation at the protocol and systems integration levels.

• Talent for working from first principles to develop software for modeling, data acquisition, mining, analysis, and presentation in using appropriate tools, e.g. Python, MatLab.

• Innate curiosity to figure out how systems work by decomposing them through the application of fundamental principles, an ability to translate this into measurable metrics, and a drive to leverage these methods to optimize design.

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.

In addition to our compensation programs, we invest in our people with a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the health, wellbeing, and financial future for full-time employees — including health coverage, retirement savings, time off, and family planning programs. Offerings vary by country. Learn more about our global benefit programs .

External candidates can apply for this role through the Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies careers site ( https://rivianvw.tech/#careers ). If you are a current employee, please apply through our internal job board .

Equal Opportunity

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information or characteristics, physical or mental disability, marital/domestic partner status, age, military/veteran status, medical condition, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are also committed to ensuring compliance with all applicable fair employment practice laws regarding citizenship and immigration status.

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is committed to ensuring that our hiring process is accessible for persons with disabilities. If you have a disability or limitation, such as those covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, that requires accommodations to assist you in the search and application process, please email us at candidateaccommodations@rivian.com.

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