Senior Lead, Perception, Autonomy

Rivian•Palo Alto, CA

11h

About The Position

Rivian is on a mission to keep the world adventurous forever. This goes for the emissions-free Electric Adventure Vehicles we build, and the curious, courageous souls we seek to attract. As a company, we constantly challenge what’s possible, never simply accepting what has always been done. We reframe old problems, seek new solutions and operate comfortably in areas that are unknown. Our backgrounds are diverse, but our team shares a love of the outdoors and a desire to protect it for future generations. The Perception Adaptation and Integration Lead will oversee the deployment of our core Perception system into new global markets, products, and hardware platforms. The immediate priority for this position is adapting autonomous features for the European market, followed by supporting any future market expansion and integration of our ADAS/Autonomy technology in other platforms and products. Serving as the primary interface for the Perception team, you will collaborate broadly with the autonomy organization and manage a team of individual contributors dedicated to these scaling efforts.

Requirements

Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
Extensive experience leveraging data-driven approaches to improve machine learning models specifically within perception or autonomy stacks.
Solid software engineering fundamentals with proficiency in Python or C++.
Deep expertise in core perception technologies, including machine learning, robotics, state estimation, and signal processing.
Proven track record in the design, development, and integration of hardware and software systems for autonomy.
Demonstrated experience managing engineering teams across software development, robotics, or machine learning domains.
Comprehensive understanding of full-stack perception systems, development tools, and validation pipelines.
Strong capability to root-cause complex issues across the software stack and implement reliable, real-time solutions for safety-critical systems.
Ability to lead technical initiatives across complex, multi-domain systems and effectively coordinate with diverse cross-functional stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.
Excellent communication and presentation skills, with a collaborative, team-oriented mindset.

Responsibilities

Define, document, and communicate the technical challenges and requirements for each new market expansion, factoring in regional feature variations, local regulations, and diverse hardware constraints.
Contribute to the strategic roadmap for addressing internationalization and platform integration challenges.
Execute software modifications and system improvements to meet deployment requirements, with a heavy emphasis on driving data-driven enhancements to machine learning models.
Recruit, manage, and mentor individual contributors to support the team's expanding operational and technical scope.