Senior NVH Development Tech — Prototyping & Tuning

Rivian Automotive; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 107,000 - 134,000; Full time

Job summary

Rivian is seeking an NVH Development Technician to drive hands-on noise and vibration development within our NVH team. You will instrument development vehicles, run objective and subjective NVH evaluations, and iterate countermeasures to improve quietness and overall vehicle quality.

The role involves on-vehicle work, tool setup, and collaboration with engineers to enable rapid build-test-learn cycles on prototype hardware. 20% travel may be required.

Qualifications

• Root-cause NVH issues on prototype and development hardware; propose, build, and validate countermeasures.
• Familiar with NVH test methodologies (road/track, chassis dyno, static and operational testing) and the ability to execute test plans independently and repeatably.
• Strong subjective evaluation skills; describe, rate, and correlate NVH characteristics to measured data.
• Experience fabricating, fitting, and iterating on development-level countermeasures (damping, isolation, sealing, absorption, bracketry) on prototype vehicles.
• 5+ years in automotive repair or prototype build; capable of repairs, part swaps, and vehicle inspections in support of development work.
• Strong understanding of vehicle systems, EV architecture, with a focus on safety.
• Organization & Work Ethic: self-starter, detail-oriented, able to support multiple programs in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong communication and valid driver's license; travel up to 20%.

Responsibilities

• Vehicle NVH development: troubleshoot, diagnose, and develop solutions to vehicle noise and vibration issues across full-vehicle and subsystem levels, iterating on countermeasures and assessing their effectiveness.
• Instrumentation & measurement: plan and install NVH instrumentation on development vehicles, configure data acquisition systems, and capture high-quality measurement data for engineering analysis.
• Test execution: conduct road, track, and facility-based NVH evaluations; perform subjective assessments and document findings to support engineering decisions.
• Development support: partner with engineering teams to enable rapid build-test-learn cycles, turning proposed design changes into testable vehicle configurations quickly.
• Capability building: maintain and improve NVH instrumentation, tooling, and workshop capability; contribute to test procedures and best practices.
• Vehicle readiness: perform repairs, part changes, and inspections needed to keep development vehicles available and in known configuration.

Skills

NVH diagnosis

Test planning

Measurement & instrumentation

Collaboration

Automotive repair

EV knowledge

Communication

Travel readiness

Tools

NVH instrumentation

Chassis dynamometer

Data acquisition systems

Development tooling

Job description

Rivian is seeking an NVH Development Technician to drive hands-on noise and vibration development within our NVH team. You will instrument development vehicles, run objective and subjective NVH evaluations, and iterate countermeasures to improve quietness and overall vehicle quality.

The role involves on-vehicle work, tool setup, and collaboration with engineers to enable rapid build-test-learn cycles on prototype hardware. 20% travel may be required.