Staff Machine Learning Engineer, End-to-End Autonomy

Rivian • Palo Alto, CA

25d

About The Position

We are seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer interested in the development of end-to-end models that unify perception, prediction, and planning in a single system. This role is ideal for someone excited by the challenge of scaling models that learn from vast sensory data to enable autonomous driving. Ideal candidates have experience with Supervised Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and/or LLMs.

Requirements

• B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience building and deploying large-scale ML systems.
• Deep understanding of foundation models, self-supervised learning, and world models in robotics or simulation.
• Strong software engineering background, with fluency in Python and C++.
• Experience training and evaluating transformer models or end-to-end autonomous agents.
• Familiarity with real-time inference systems and autonomous vehicle constraints.
• Proven leadership in driving ML projects from research to production.

Nice To Haves

• Prior work on end-to-end autonomous driving architectures (e.g., imitation learning, behavior cloning, world models).
• Experience with sensor fusion (LiDAR, camera, radar) in a learned mode.

Responsibilities

• Guide the architecture, implementation, and deployment of the Large Driving Model (LDM).
• Develop technical strategy and architecture for end-to-end autonomous driving model.
• Develop multi-modal, multi-task transformer-based systems that support closed-loop autonomy.
• Build training and evaluation pipelines at scale across petabytes of real-world and simulated driving data.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across perception, planning, simulation, and ML infrastructure.
• Drive alignment between model capabilities and real-world deployment constraints (latency, robustness, validation).
• Publish internal technical guidance and mentor engineers across autonomy ML.

Benefits

• Robust medical/Rx, dental and vision insurance packages for full-time employees, their spouse or domestic partner, and children up to age 26.
• Coverage is effective on the first day of employment.
• Rivian covers most of the premiums.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree