Staff ML Engineer, Large Driving Model (LDM) for Autonomy

Rivian Automotive; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Equity awards

401(k) plan

Employee Stock Purchase Program

Full-time benefits

Job summary

Rivian is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to own the complete lifecycle of the Large Driving Model (LDM) for our Autonomy stack. You will curate data, run post-training alignment and rigorous evaluation to achieve advanced driving capabilities on real vehicles.

You will lead AI strategy, set technical direction, and collaborate across perception, planning and platform teams to deliver safe, high‑quality autonomous software.

Qualifications

• MS/PhD in ML, CS, robotics or related field.
• 7+ years of industry experience with production ML systems at staff/lead level.
• Expert-level Python and PyTorch; experience with large-scale distributed training.
• Deep expertise in foundation models, post-training (fine-tuning/alignment).
• Proven ability to own ML data verticals including data curation and synthetic data.
• Strong foundation in linear algebra, geometry, optimization, algorithms and data structures.
• Excellent communication to set direction and build consensus in a fast-paced team.
• Experience with automotive self-driving stacks or safety-critical robotics is a plus.

Responsibilities

• End-to-End vertical ownership of LDM capabilities and data pipelines.
• Design and optimize model and system architectures for on-road performance.
• Provide technical leadership within the Autonomy department.
• Balance business, safety and tech tradeoffs to meet timelines.
• Architect scalable ML systems and establish best practices for the LDM team.
• Influence roadmaps across perception, planning and platform teams.
• Deploy, monitor and improve models in real-world, customer vehicles.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

Distributed training

Foundation models

Data curation

Communication

Robotics systems

Optimization

Linear algebra

Education

M.S./Ph.D. in ML/CS/Robotics

Tools

Distributed training frameworks

Python tooling

Job description

Rivian is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to own the complete lifecycle of the Large Driving Model (LDM) for our Autonomy stack. You will curate data, run post-training alignment and rigorous evaluation to achieve advanced driving capabilities on real vehicles.

You will lead AI strategy, set technical direction, and collaborate across perception, planning and platform teams to deliver safe, high‑quality autonomous software.