Lead Organizational Development Partner

Rivian•Normal, IL

About The Position

The Lead Organizational Development Partner will be a key member of Rivian’s Talent Management Center of Excellence, responsible for designing and operationalizing strategies that improve organizational effectiveness, leadership capability, change agility, and culture. You will evolve and implement Rivian’s organization design and capabilities frameworks, ensuring we have the right roles, structures, and ways of working to support performance at scale. This role blends OD strategy, organizational health analytics, and hands-on partnership with senior leaders across engineering, manufacturing, and technology environments. Why This Role Matters Shape How Rivian Operates at Scale: You will design and refine the organizational frameworks that determine how teams are structured, how decisions get made, and how work flows in a rapidly growing, global EV and tech company. Turn Org Health into a Business Lever: By combining people analytics and organizational diagnostics, you will help leaders see where structure, capability, and culture are enabling or blocking performance—and what to do about it. Enable Strategic Talent Decisions: Your work on succession, capabilities, and org design will directly inform hiring, promotions, investments in leadership, and long-range workforce planning. Connect Culture, Systems, and Strategy: You will ensure that Rivian’s mission, Compass values, and leadership expectations are embedded in how we design organizations, set goals, and lead change—not just in how we talk about them.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in Organization Development, HR Business Partnering, Talent Management, and/or People Analytics, with a track record of impact at scale.
Demonstrated expertise designing and deploying large-scale organizational, operating, and capability models in complex, matrixed environments.
Applied experience integrating traditional hierarchical models with network-based teaming, decision principles, and ways of working in tech-centered or engineering/manufacturing contexts.
Experience working in tech-centered engineering and manufacturing organizations and partnering with technical and operational leaders.
Strong analytical skills, including the ability to translate people and org data into compelling narratives, root-cause insights, and actionable recommendations for executives.
Proficiency with Workday and comfort working with people data and reporting tools.
Proven ability to influence and coach senior leaders, challenge constructively, and navigate differing perspectives while maintaining trust.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with a polished, succinct, and business-oriented style.
Demonstrated strength in program management and operational rigor, including designing and running repeatable processes with clear governance and accountability.

Nice To Haves

Master’s or PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Organizational Behavior, or related field.
Experience in a public company and/or automotive or advanced manufacturing environment.
Deep understanding of OKR methodology and its practical application in complex organizations.
Process-oriented mindset with a strong focus on documentation, scalability, and continuous improvement.
A proactive, curious operator with genuine passion for organizational effectiveness, leadership, and employee experience.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a comprehensive organizational development strategy aligned with Rivian’s mission, Compass behaviors, and evolving business priorities.
Define and operationalize organization design principles, governance, and review processes to support agility, scale, and clear decision-rights across functions.
Design and refine operating and capability models that integrate traditional hierarchy, decision frameworks, ways of working, and network-based teaming.
Build and refine succession planning and talent review protocols for executive and critical roles, including process design, tooling, and cadence.
Partner with Talent Management, HRBPs, and business leaders to identify critical capabilities, gaps, and targeted interventions at org, team, and individual levels.
Ensure OD and talent frameworks are integrated with performance, rewards, leadership development, and workforce planning.
Design and implement culture and program integration strategies that enhance engagement, performance, and continuous learning.
Partner with leaders and People teams to diagnose cultural and organizational health issues, and build targeted interventions that are practical and measurable.
Translate enterprise culture and change priorities into function-level roadmaps that reflect local realities while driving toward shared standards.
Act as a trusted consultant to senior leaders and HRBPs, advising on org design, change management, and organizational effectiveness.
Align OD initiatives with business objectives through close collaboration with other People COEs (e.g., Talent Acquisition, L&D, Rewards, People Analytics).
Support and, where appropriate, lead enterprise forums focused on organization design, capability building, and leadership effectiveness.
Partner with People Analytics to design, interpret, and socialize organizational health metrics (e.g., spans/layers, attrition patterns, engagement trends, capability maps).
Build measurement frameworks and dashboards to assess the impact of OD initiatives and inform iterative improvements.
Provide guidance on goal-setting methodologies, with emphasis on the effective application of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results); support leaders and teams in translating strategy into clear, measurable goals.