Staff AI Engineer, Enterprise AI

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies • Palo Alto, CA

5d

About The Position

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies (RVT), a joint venture between Rivian and Volkswagen Group, is building technology for software-defined vehicles, spanning operating systems, zonal controllers, cloud, connectivity, AI, and security. The organization is working to productionize existing AI tools and scale their use across engineering teams.

The Staff AI Engineer will build reusable, model-agnostic AI tooling and services that make AI a practical part of the software development lifecycle. Working with engineering leaders and teams across domains, the role will help shape the AI tooling roadmap, create AI-native development workflows, and ensure tools are reliable, observable, cost-effective, secure, and useful to engineers. The engineer will also evaluate and monitor model quality, safety, and developer impact; advise on build-versus-buy decisions; and mentor engineers while promoting strong engineering practices.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• At least 8 years of software engineering experience for Staff level, with a track record of delivering production systems in enterprise environments.
• Hands-on experience building and operating AI-native developer tools, internal platforms, or CI/CD systems in production.
• Hands-on production experience with language models and agents, including tool use, context management, and evaluation, across open-source and proprietary models.
• Deep familiarity with current AI developments, especially for software development, and the judgment to distinguish production-ready approaches from those that are not.
• Experience designing abstractions that keep tooling portable across model providers and frameworks.
• Experience collaborating across teams and influencing technical decisions without formal authority.
• Experience mentoring engineers and raising quality through code reviews and design reviews.
• Working knowledge of security, privacy, and auditability for AI-enabled developer tooling.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively with engineering leaders across domains.

Responsibilities

• Build reusable AI tooling across agent runtimes, evaluation, skills, plugins, and agentic loops, and help shape the roadmap through implementation.
• Design and build AI tooling that works across open-source and proprietary models, allowing teams to change models without rebuilding workflows.
• Apply AI across the software development lifecycle, including code review, testing, and triage, in collaboration with engineering leaders across domains.
• Lead design reviews and deliver prioritized AI services and developer tools end to end, owning reliability, observability, and cost.
• Collaborate across engineering groups to identify shared patterns, reuse components, and prevent duplicate work.
• Build evaluation, guardrails, and monitoring to measure quality, safety, and developer impact across open-source and proprietary models.
• Measure and report tooling impact through cycle time, quality, and hours returned from low-value work.
• Improve the speed and affordability of AI workloads and provide build-versus-buy recommendations.
• Build security, privacy, and auditability into tools in collaboration with Security, Compliance, and Audit partners.
• Work with DevEx, IT, and domain teams to shape AI-native development workflows that engineers want to use.
• Mentor engineers across levels and raise standards for code quality, design, and engineering practices through reviews and pairing.
• Stay current with AI developments, particularly in software development, and bring production-ready approaches into the platform.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary.
• Eligibility for an annual company performance bonus program for full-time positions; payments are discretionary and not guaranteed.
• Eligibility for equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), subject to board approval and applicable plan terms and vesting requirements.
• Comprehensive benefits package for full-time employees, including health coverage, retirement savings, time off, and family planning programs. Offerings vary by country.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior