Staff ML Engineer, Perception

Rivian; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 228,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Job summary

Rivian is seeking a Staff ML Engineer in California to lead production-grade auto-labeling models for autonomous vehicles. You will own end-to-end ML lifecycle, including data flywheel, evaluation, and performance optimization, with emphasis on lidar-free solutions.

You will collaborate with the Autonomy group and cross-functional teams to define requirements, drive feature delivery, and scale ML systems for real-world mapping and perception tasks.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a highly related quantitative field.
• 7+ years of professional experience scaling ML solutions with focus on auto-labeling for autonomous vehicles.
• Solid understanding of the AV perception stack.
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern perception pipelines, benchmarking tools, and infrastructure.
• Execution: ability to drive progress across a complex system in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Drive and deliver production-grade, high-quality, scalable auto-labeling models. Use cases include AV mapping, lanes auto-labelling and/or object auto-labelling, among other critical applications.
• Push the performance of lidar-free auto-labeling.
• Establish rigorous evaluation and monitoring benchmarks. Identify and root-cause top-tier system anomalies, prioritizing high-impact optimizations to continuously push performance.
• Partner closely with the Autonomy group to ensure we meet the feature requirements.
• Collaborate across teams to define target requirements and guide technical trade-off decisions.

Skills

Python

ML lifecycle

Autonomy stack

AV perception

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/Robotics/EE

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Benchmarking tools

Job description

Overview

Rivian is on a mission to keep the world adventurous forever. We build emissions-free Electric Adventure Vehicles and seek curious, courageous people who share a love of the outdoors and a desire to protect it for future generations.

We challenge what’s possible, reframing old problems, seeking new solutions, and operating comfortably in areas that are unknown. Our team is diverse and collaborative.

Role Summary

Auto-labelling is a foundational pillar of the Autonomy stack. In this Staff ML Engineer role, you will drive and deliver high-quality, scalable auto-labeling models, including training, optimizing and shipping models in the Autonomy stack. Use cases include mapping, lanes auto-labelling, object auto-labelling, and other critical applications. You will ship production-grade models and lead the end-to-end ML lifecycle and data flywheel: data acquisition, metrics definition, evaluation, model performance optimization, and feedback loop. A key part of the role is dedicated to lidar-free auto-labeling, i.e., shipping auto-labeling models that do not require lidar data.

Responsibilities

• Drive and deliver production-grade, high-quality, scalable auto-labeling models. Use cases include AV mapping, lanes auto-labelling and/or object auto-labelling, among other critical applications.
• Push the performance of lidar-free auto-labeling.
• Establish rigorous evaluation and monitoring benchmarks. Identify and root-cause top-tier system anomalies, prioritizing high-impact optimizations to continuously push the needle on performance.
• Partner closely with the Autonomy group to ensure we meet the feature requirements.
• Collaborate across teams to define target requirements and guide technical trade-off decisions.

Qualifications

• Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a highly related quantitative field.
• Experience: 7+ years of professional experience scaling ML solutions, with a strong focus on the following:
• AV auto-labeling system at scale: Proven track record of hands-on experience driving and delivering auto-labeling models for Autonomous Vehicles at scale. Auto labeling for mapping, lanes auto-labelling and/or object auto-labelling.
• Perception stack: Solid understanding of the AV perception stack.
• System engineering: Strong proficiency in Python and a solid understanding of modern perception pipelines, benchmarking tools, and infrastructure.
• Execution: Demonstrated ability to drive progress across a complex system spanning multiple domains in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in lidar-free auto-labeling.
• Experience in mapping, especially from multiple vehicle passes and/or lidar-free mapping.
• Experience in defining data annotation guidelines and partnering effectively with in-house and external 3P annotation vendors.
• Experience in complex, multi-modal, large-scale data flywheel.
• Experience with multiple modalities (e.g., cameras, lidar, radar).
• Experience with onboard edge deployment, cloud inference architectures, and balancing compute/efficiency trade-offs.

Pay Disclosure

Salary Range for California Based Applicants: $228,000 - $285,000 (actual compensation will be determined based on experience, location, and other factors permitted by law).

Benefits Summary: Rivian provides robust medical/Rx, dental and vision insurance packages for full-time employees, their spouse or domestic partner, and children up to age 26. Coverage is effective on the first day of employment, and Rivian covers most of the premium.

Equal Opportunity

Rivian is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information or characteristics, physical or mental disability, marital/domestic partner status, age, military/veteran status, medical condition, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Rivian is committed to ensuring that our hiring process is accessible for persons with disabilities. If you have a disability or limitation that requires accommodations to assist you in the search and application process, please email [e-mail]

Candidate Data Privacy

Rivian may collect, use and disclose your personal information or personal data when you apply for employment and/or participate in our recruitment processes. This data includes contact, demographic, communications, educational, professional, employment, and related information. Rivian may use your Candidate Personal Data for tracking interactions with our recruiting system, improving our application and recruitment process, establishing an employment relationship, complying with legal obligations, recordkeeping, security, and other permitted purposes.

Rivian may share your Candidate Personal Data with internal personnel, Rivian affiliates, and service providers, including background checks and cloud services. The data may be transferred internationally and stored in various jurisdictions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

Please note that we are not accepting applications from third party application services at this time.