Staff Product Operations Manager

Rivian and VW Group Technology•Irvine, CA

4d•$154,000 - $209,300

About The Position

As the RVT roadmap expands with our brand partners, we continue to develop processes, methods, tools and strategic partnerships to support our scaling approach. Our Electrical Hardware Technical Program Management team is seeking a collaborative and strategic Staff Product Operations Manager to secure production continuity, scale manufacturing capacity to meet dynamic product demand, and drive operational excellence across our hardware ecosystem. This role is responsible for proactive material risk mitigation—including shortage management, End of Life [EOL] transitions, and supply continuity—as well as overseeing field failure triage workflows and design refresh activities with our global partners. This candidate must be able to effectively curate, manage and lead outsourced engineering partners and technical service firms on field failure analysis, reverse logistics, and the development and implementation of corrective and preventative action plans. In addition, this role will collaborate closely with external engineering partners on post ramp redesign efforts—both for sustaining reliability improvements and for strategic design refreshes driven by our brand partner feature requirement changes and/or cost optimization. This role will also encompass greenfield development of sustaining operation and post-ramp design/qualification/failure analysis workflows for integration into internal systems, tools and teams. Acting as a key interface between Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and our Contract Manufacturer (CM) network, you will develop end-to-end operational strategies, implement scalable processes, resolve cross-functional blockers, and lead the operational roadmap from prototype through mass production and sustaining phases. This role requires a strong technical foundation, deep operational intuition, and the ability to anticipate risks and execute against aggressive timelines in a fast-paced environment.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in New Product Introduction, Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chain Management, and/or Operations Engineering.
BS or MS degree in Engineering.
Demonstrated experience in component lifecycle management, material risk mitigation, and EOL transition planning.
Experience driving RMA triage, failure analysis, and design refresh processes with engineering and supplier partners.
Experience with managing engineering service partners and/or JDM partners
Exceptional cross-functional collaboration skills; able to influence without authority and build strong relationships across organizations.
Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities; data-driven decision-making and comfort navigating ambiguity.
Ability to travel as needed to CM sites internationally.
Strong communication skills in technical and nontechnical domains.
Outstanding collaboration and relationship-building capabilities within and across organizations.
Data-driven, proactive, and tenacious; energized by ambiguity and passionate about cross-functional problem solving.

Responsibilities

Develop portfolio of engineering service providers to support post-ramp design, validation, failure analysis and other critical engineering functions
Create sustaining operation and post-ramp design/qualification/failure analysis workflows for integration into internal systems and teams.
Collaborate across key stakeholders, including Hardware and Software Engineering, Product Launch Engineering, Quality, Purchasing and Test Automation, to create integrated CM operations schedules.
Coordinate with Hardware, Software and Vehicle-level program managers to integrate critical operations readiness milestones and dependencies into top-line ECU and vehicle program schedules, highlighting technical/timeline risks holistically.
Own production continuity planning, including capacity modeling, ramp readiness, and long-term supply planning with internal teams and external CMs.
Lead build readiness for engineering, pilot, and mass-production phases while ensuring operational requirements are met across hardware, software, and system teams.
Proactively identify and mitigate material shortages, EOL components, and single-sourced risk items via strategic planning, qualification of alternates, and cross-functional collaboration.
Partner with Engineering, Sourcing, and Suppliers to manage component lifecycle health and initiate design refresh actions as needed.
Drive RMA workflows with CMs and suppliers, ensuring timely triage, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and preventative measures.
Partner with Quality, Reliability, and Design Engineering to differentiate between design, process, and component failures and ensure efficient ownership.
Lead post-ramp change management efforts for design, quality and process issue resolution with Quality and Design Engineering teams.
Oversee design refresh and ECO implementation at CMs, ensuring controlled rollout, validation, and change qualification.
Integrate critical operational milestones into broader product and vehicle-level schedules, communicating risks and dependencies clearly.
Implement scalable processes and best practices for CM management, NPI-to-ramp transitions, sustaining operations, and change control.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives across cost, quality, yield, cycle time, communication, and data visibility.
Lead cross-functional issue resolution to mitigate risks and remove roadblocks for CM readiness.