Sr. Propulsion Durability Attribute Engineer

Rivian•Irvine, CA

8h•Remote

About The Position

The Durability Attribute engineers predict and test the range of loads and stresses Rivian vehicles will experience over life and need to be durable for—a challenging problem with many unknowns. Rivian designs vehicles for a wide range of use from everyday driving to offroad trail adventures and has introduced new agile ways to drive such as vehicle kick turns and dynamic powertrain tuning. Vehicle durability at Rivian exemplifies the intersection of virtual, test-based, and data-driven engineering ensuring the “Forever” in Rivian’s mission of Keeping the World Adventurous Forever. As a Senior Propulsion Durability Attribute Engineer, you will be a part of this collaborative team making Rivian vehicles adventurous yet durable for our customers. Your role will be to develop and validate data-driven and physics-based models to predict the usage of our vehicles over life, the loads on the propulsion system from such usage, and the detailed stressors from these loads affecting component life. You will have the opportunity to influence several aspects of vehicle development at Rivian such as propulsion system design through durability target setting, vehicle concept definition through fatigue sensitivity analyses, and vehicle testing and reliability through fleet data analyses.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
A strong understanding of the physics of vehicle propulsion systems and other energy systems.
Passion for Rivian’s mission and commitment to fostering an inclusive, respectful, and collaborative workplace.
4+ years experience in the automotive industry in a powertrain, propulsion, battery, or energy systems role, and/or equivalent research experience.
Experience with vehicle powertrain systems modeling.
Strong experience in Python (Pandas, Numpy), PySpark, Matlab, SQL.
Experience with time series analysis.
Experience in fatigue life estimation (e.g., Rainflow counting, Miner’s Rule) and statistical methods (e.g., Weibull analysis)
Demonstrated experience in analytical writing (reports, white papers, publications) and clear-and-concise presentations, with attention to detail.

Nice To Haves

Working knowledge of IPG CarMaker is a plus.
Some experience with machine learning techniques to develop classification models of behavior data (travel, driving, charging etc.) is a plus.
Project or research experience with large time series datasets is a plus.

Responsibilities

Define the propulsion durability duty cycle for various vehicle programs, i.e., nominal and exceptional vehicle use cases, frequency, and sequence that determine propulsion system fatigue over life.
Develop drive cycles for different types of vehicle use cases in different markets using real-world and vehicle-testing data.
Model and simulate propulsion system loads for different drive cycles and vehicle configurations.
Employ data science methods to build models of customer usage over life, i.e., develop customer behavior digital twin. Correlate simulation results with real-world fleet data and physical test results to continuously improve model fidelity.
Perform design of experiments (DoE) studies and sensitivity studies for the variation of fatigue damage for different duty cycles and propulsion designs.
Collaborate with design and reliability teams to undertake detailed physics-based exploration of failure modes.
Communicate and disseminate important findings and novel work through various presentations to multiple stakeholders in attribute and design reviews, papers at industry-leading conferences, and patents.