Staff Vehicle Validation TPM — Roadmap & Launch Leadership

Rivian Automotive; Tustin (CA); On-site; USD 154,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) Plan

Employee Stock Purchase Program

Health insurance

Paid time off

Job summary

Rivian seeks a Staff Technical Program Manager, Vehicle Validation, to own the vehicle validation roadmap from concept to launch. You will align vehicle-level plans, DFMEAs, and build milestones across engineering, manufacturing, and service teams.

You will lead validation strategy, develop dashboards, and ensure timely risk mitigation, with visibility into metrics and governance for continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related technical field.
• 8+ years in automotive or complex electro-mechanical products with leadership in technical program management, systems engineering, validation, or similar roles.
• Deep understanding of vehicle development milestones, DVPs, DFMEAs, requirements, and build phases.

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously improve the integrated vehicle validation roadmap from concept through engineering sign-off, with decision-ready deliverables.
• Translate DFMEA, NUDD, requirements, and known product risks into an integrated vehicle validation strategy across Rivian’s validation pillars.
• Build and maintain the integrated vehicle validation plan, including what tests run when, on which vehicles, at what maturity, and with what configuration.
• Lead cross-functional alignment across engineering, program, test, manufacturing, launch, service, quality, and other partner teams to align validation coverage, asset plans, timing, and readiness.
• Re-plan quickly when content, software, build timing, or readiness changes create risk, maintaining a credible path to key milestones and launch.
• Establish dashboards and metrics, audit DVP and SDVP coverage, and provide clear, data-backed updates that support accountability and fast decision-making.
• Proactively identify gaps and risks, drive mitigation and issue closure, and ensure findings are fed back into requirements, DFMEAs, and future plans.
• Apply validation governance and continuous improvement efforts, including standardizing methods and tools.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Program management

Systems engineering

Validation

Data-driven decisions

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Jama

Dashboards

Job description

Rivian seeks a Staff Technical Program Manager, Vehicle Validation, to own the vehicle validation roadmap from concept to launch. You will align vehicle-level plans, DFMEAs, and build milestones across engineering, manufacturing, and service teams.

You will lead validation strategy, develop dashboards, and ensure timely risk mitigation, with visibility into metrics and governance for continuous improvement.