Staff Embedded Software Engineer — Autonomy & Safety-Critical

Rivian; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 206,000 - 258,000; Full time

Job summary

Rivian is seeking a Staff Software Engineer specializing in safety-critical self‑driving embedded software to design, develop, and deploy software that underpins essential self‑driving features. You will work on real‑time operating systems and embedded C across a distributed system, contributing to robust, reliable autonomous capabilities.

Your role spans architecture analysis, development, code reviews, and deployment within a fast-paced CI/CD environment, collaborating with hardware, software,

Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 6+ years of experience developing production-grade software for safety-critical applications in automotive, aerospace, robotics, or related fields.
• Strong embedded C programming skills.
• Experience GCC/Clang compilers + linkers.
• Experience with Bazel or other large-project build systems.
• Strong triage and problem solving skills.
• Experience with resource-constrained architectures.
• Experience with real-time applications and kernels.

Responsibilities

• Develop software on real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr) on distributed, heterogeneous hardware.
• Create tools to support development, observability, debugging, and testing.
• Set up build systems and tooling to accelerate team development.
• Assist in software design, code reviews, and technical decision making.
• Analyze requirements, architecture, design, development, QA and deployment across the software lifecycle.
• Identify gaps in development processes to improve quality and pace.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to support vehicle and ADAS features.

Skills

Embedded C programming

Real-time / safety-critical software

Multithreaded software debugging

CI/CD in fast-paced environments

Scripting (Bash, Python)

Education

B.S. / M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

GCC/Clang toolchain

Bazel

JTAG

Logic analyzer

Job description

Rivian is seeking a Staff Software Engineer specializing in safety-critical self‑driving embedded software to design, develop, and deploy software that underpins essential self‑driving features. You will work on real‑time operating systems and embedded C across a distributed system, contributing to robust, reliable autonomous capabilities.

Your role spans architecture analysis, development, code reviews, and deployment within a fast-paced CI/CD environment, collaborating with hardware, software,