Adhesives & Seals Materials Engineer (Lab-Driven)

Rivian; Tustin (CA); On-site; USD 78,000 - 97,000; Full time

Job summary

Rivian seeks a Materials Engineer in the Failure Analysis and Materials Engineering team in California. You will qualify adhesives and sealants, solve bonding issues, and translate test data into Rivian specifications for EV platforms including battery, body, and charging hardware.

This hands-on role focuses on lab testing, DOE-driven material qualification, and close collaboration with engineers across manufacturing, quality, and supplier teams.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• Hands-on experience with mechanical testing of polymers on a universal testing frame, including fixturing and specimen preparation.
• Working experience with DSC, TGA, DMA, FTIR, rheometry, optical microscopy, SEM/EDS.
• Solid grounding in polymer fundamentals and adhesion/seal performance.
• Clear technical writing for test plans, lab procedures, reports, and specifications.
• Data analysis in Python, JMP, Minitab or equivalent; basic statistics and DOE knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Plan and run laboratory testing of structural and semi-structural adhesives and sealants used across Rivian systems.
• Execute mechanical testing at material and joint levels (lap shear, peel, tensile, hardness).
• Characterize cure, thermal, and chemical behavior; relate results to processing windows.
• Run environmental aging and sealing tests; assess ingress and IP protection.
• Qualify new materials; write qualification reports and support design approvals.
• Support failure analysis and document root-cause evidence for containment.

Skills

Mechanical testing

Data analysis

Technical writing

Cross-functional communication

Lab safety

Education

Bachelor's degree in Materials Science/Engineering or related

Tools

DSC

TGA

DMA

FTIR

SEM/EDS

Optical microscopy

Job description

Rivian seeks a Materials Engineer in the Failure Analysis and Materials Engineering team in California. You will qualify adhesives and sealants, solve bonding issues, and translate test data into Rivian specifications for EV platforms including battery, body, and charging hardware.

This hands-on role focuses on lab testing, DOE-driven material qualification, and close collaboration with engineers across manufacturing, quality, and supplier teams.