Staff Electronic Design Engineer

Rivian•Palo Alto, CA

About The Position

As a Staff Electronic Design Engineer on Rivian’s Autonomy Sensing Systems team, you will contribute to the architecture, development, deployment, and optimization of advanced sensing systems for safety-critical, customer-facing autonomous vehicle features. The role is responsible for defining the architecture and designing printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) for high-performance radar sensors, including their RF front ends, processing, power, and high-speed signaling. You will bring complex, high-speed designs from concept through production and beyond, act as a technical anchor for debugging field issues, and manage hardware changes driven by supply chain needs after product launch. You will collaborate with software, mechanical, thermal, reliability, and systems teams to deliver and maintain robust autonomy solutions.

Requirements

Master’s or PhD degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field, with at least 10 years of experience.
Detailed understanding of RF design requirements.
Strong electrical engineering fundamentals in power, high-speed design, computer architecture, analog, and mixed-signal design.
Experience designing and validating high-speed signaling.
Proficiency with schematic capture and design layout tools, including Altium Designer and OrCAD.
Signal integrity analysis experience using tools such as Ansys HFSS or Keysight ADS.
Solid understanding of signal integrity (SI) and power integrity (PI) principles, including experience specifying PCB stack-up requirements.
Experience with automotive industry standards and processes, such as ISO 26262 and AEC-Q100.
Ability to write or modify Python or Bash scripts to automate data generation and hardware testing on high-speed interfaces.
Experience performing impact analysis and validation for component substitutions in a high-volume production environment.
Deep understanding of product development and technical risk management.
Excellent communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences.
Hands-on experience with laboratory equipment for hardware bring-up, characterization, and methodical root-cause analysis.

Responsibilities

Own electrical system design and development for next-generation radar sensing systems and high-performance compute systems.
Drive PCBA architecture, bill-of-materials (BOM) selection, and design for manufacturing.
Perform detailed PCBA RF analysis, including simulations with tools such as HFSS, to inform system design and isolation between RF and digital domains.
Drive schematic capture and provide PCB layout guidance to support performance, reliability, and manufacturability.
Define product validation requirements, take key measurements, and collaborate with validation engineers on the validation plan.
Characterize RF performance through bench and chamber testing and field analysis.
Coordinate with mechanical engineers on module packaging, manufacturing, and thermal performance.
Drive the production cycle in partnership with external vendors and contract manufacturers.
Lead troubleshooting and train junior engineers and/or technicians in troubleshooting methods.