Sr. AI Engineer, Product Devleopment

Rivian; Tustin (CA); On-site; USD 107,000 - 169,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan

Equity awards

Insurance benefits

Job summary

Rivian is seeking an AI Engineer to join the Product Development AI and Data Science team in California. You will build agentic AI workflows, develop scalable data pipelines, and deploy AI systems to improve product development efficiency and quality.

The role sits at the intersection of product development, software engineering, and data science, with responsibilities spanning prototype to production and rigorous evaluation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's, master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Mathematics, or another quantitative field.
• 4–6+ years of experience building production data pipelines and developing AI/ML solutions (LLM-based applications preferred).
• Experience with agent harnesses, LLM orchestration, and related concepts (RAG, context engineering, grounding, evaluation, cost/latency).
• Proficiency with Git, eval-driven CI/CD pipelines, probabilistic validation of AI systems, deployment, and end-to-end ownership.

Responsibilities

• Design & Deploy AI Agents to automate engineering tasks and enable knowledge retrieval.
• Construct AI-ready data layers including ETL pipelines, knowledge graphs, and vector stores.
• Execute AI trials to evaluate emerging techniques and reduce engineering labor.
• Bridge prototypes to production for robust, scalable systems.
• Develop evaluation frameworks for accuracy, grounding, latency, and cost.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to optimize engineering workflows with AI.

Skills

Agentic programming

Agent Harness

Probabilistic testing

Software fundamentals

Infrastructure & scaling

Unstructured data

Domain context

Problem solving

Communication

Continuous learning

Education

CS/EE/ME/Physics

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Containerization

Knowledge graphs/Vector DB

Job description

About Rivian

Rivianis on a mission to keep the world adventurous forever. This goes for the emissions-free Electric Adventure Vehicles we build, and the curious, courageous souls we seek to attract.

As a company, we constantly challenge what's possible, never simply accepting what has always been done. We reframe old problems, seek new solutions and operate comfortably in areas that are unknown. Our backgrounds are diverse, but our team shares a love of the outdoors and a desire to protect it for future generations.

Role Summary

We are looking for an AI Engineer who will support our Product Development organization by implementing scalable AI tools that improve Product Development efficiency, productivity, and quality. As an AI Engineer on the Product Development AI and Data Science team, you will be at the center of Rivian’s AI flywheel for developing software-defined hardware products. Our mission is to bring clarity, rigor, and scale to the complex decisions required to build the world’s most adventurous electric vehicles.

We're building an intelligent operating system for engineering. You will spend your time at the intersection of product development, software engineering, data science, and LLM orchestration. You will work closely with senior technical staff to automate manual engineering workflows, build predictive models, and deploy agentic AI tools that allow our engineers to focus on innovation rather than administration.

The ideal candidate has an understanding of engineering processes for physical products and experience working with agent harnesses, telemetry, and Product Lifecycle Management data. They are capable of developing technical plans in close collaboration with senior technical staff and a wide range of stakeholders and functional teams. They are adept at evaluating existing processes and data ecosystems to find opportunities for optimization and using quantitative approaches to test the effectiveness of different courses of action. The right candidate will be able to assess ambiguous problem spaces and determine the right technical approach ranging from traditional analytics to data science and machine learning to LLM applications.

They must have strong experience using a variety of data analysis methods, building and implementing AI agent harnesses, and a demonstrated ability to quickly ramp up on domain-specific data systems.

Responsibilities

• Design & Deploy AI Agents: Partner with senior technical staff to build and orchestrate agentic AI workflows and LLM-powered systems that automate complex engineering tasks such as documentation auditing, requirement generation, and technical knowledge retrieval.
• Construct AI-Ready Data Layers: Develop, validate, and maintain ETL pipelines and data structures—including knowledge graphs and vector databases—required to provide high-fidelity context to AI applications across siloed engineering systems.
• Execute AI Trials: Lead rapid, high-velocity technical trials to evaluate the viability of emerging AI techniques. You will take projects from initial concept to functional prototype to identify which solutions can most effectively reduce engineering labor.
• Bridge Prototype to Production: Transform early-stage prototypes into robust, highly performant, and scalable enterprise systems.
• Develop Evaluation Frameworks: Define and monitor quantitative performance requirements (accuracy, grounding, latency, and cost) to ensure AI tools meet the rigorous safety and reliability standards of vehicle engineering.
• Engineering Process Optimization: Collaborate with cross-functional partners to identify manual engineering workflows and implement AI-driven automations that improve overall product development efficiency and productivity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s, master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Mathematics, or another quantitative field
• Ideally 4-6+ years of experience building production data pipelines and developing AI/ML solutions (LLM-based applications experience preferred).
• Agentic programming proficiency: You should be highly experienced with repository context engineering, AI-native IDEs & terminals, agentic loop optimization, and AI coding quality & technical debt mitigation.
• Agent Harness Engineering: Hands-on experience or deep academic exposure to LLM orchestration and application concepts, including RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), agentic frameworks, context engineering, grounding, evaluation, and cost/latency optimization.
• Probabilistic Testing & Evaluation Engineering: Deep understanding of how AI systems fail differently than traditional software. Ability to construct statistical validation tests, establish tolerance thresholds, and track output distributions.
• Software Fundamentals: Demonstrated experience with version control (Git), eval-driven CI/CD pipelines, probabilistic validation of AI systems, deployment, and end-to-end system ownership to contribute to a production environment.
• Infrastructure & Scaling: high-throughput storage systems, containerized harness orchestration, security and sandbox environments.
• Experience with Unstructured Data: Ability to extract, clean, and structure data from technical documents, requirements, or engineering specifications.
• Domain Context: Prior experience in physical engineering systems (Hardware, IoT, or Telemetry).
• Strong problem-solving skills with an emphasis on product development
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for coordinating across teams and leading cross-functional efforts
• A drive to learn and master new technologies and techniques

NICE TO HAVE:

• Exposure to graph technologies (e.g., Neo4j, Knowledge Graphs) or vector databases (e.g., Pinecone).
• Knowledge of advanced statistical techniques and concepts (regression, properties of distributions, statistical tests and proper usage, etc.) and experience with applications
• Knowledge of a variety of machine learning techniques (clustering, tree-based methods, deep learning, etc.) and their real-world advantages/drawbacks
• Experience building user-facing applications.
• Experience with distributed data/computing tools: Spark, Databricks, GCP, etc.
• Experience with DBT.
• Passion: An obsession with electric vehicles, renewable energy, and the future of sustainable transportation.

Pay Disclosure

• The salary range for this role is USD 107,000 - 133,700 for California based applicants with 1-4 years of industry experience. The job title will be 'AI Engineer II, Product Development'.
• The salary range for this role is USD 135,100 - 168,900 for California based applicants with 4-6+ years of industry experience. The job title will be 'Sr. AI Engineer, Product Development'.
• This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, shift, and organizational needs.
• The successful candidate may be eligible for annual performance bonus and equity awards.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits for full-time and part-time employees, their spouse or domestic partner, and children up to age 26, including but not limited to paid vacation, paid sick leave, and a competitive portfolio of insurance benefits including life, medical, dental, vision, short-term disability insurance, and long-term disability insurance to eligible employees. You may also have the opportunity to participate in Rivian’s 401(k) Plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program if you meet certain eligibility requirements. Full-time employee coverage is effective on their first day of employment. Part-time employee coverage is effective the first of the month following 90 days of employment. More information about benefits is available at rivianbenefits.com.