Staff Software Engineer - Vehicle Data Services

Rivian and VW Group Technology • Palo Alto, CA

8d • Hybrid

About The Position

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is a joint venture between two industry leaders with a clear vision for automotive’s next chapter. From operating systems to zonal controllers to cloud and connectivity solutions, we’re addressing the challenges of electric vehicles through technology that will set the standards for software-defined vehicles around the world.
The road to the future is uncharted. By combining our expertise across connectivity, AI, security and more, we’ll map a new way forward. Working together, we’ll create a future that’s more connected, more intelligent, more sustainable for everyone.

The Vehicle Data Services team is seeking passionate and skilled Staff Software Engineers to lead and
support our Cloud Data Platform to build massively scalable and robust Data Services that deal with the ingress and
egress of data to and from our Backend Applications. These newly created Software Engineer opening will support
High throughput telemetry acquisition systems, handling streaming and batch data, data model registry and fleet
orchestration for push updates. These Engineers will help build the future of how Cloud & Mobile services will
operate and communicate with vehicles and other Cloud services. This team will create the electric architecture and
software for next generation Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs). This new R | V Tech Employee will thrive in leading
design, developing, and maintaining high-performance, low-latency, robust, scalable, and reliable distributed
systems. This position will play a pivotal role in shaping the backbone of R | V Tech’s technology infrastructure,
collaborating with cross-functional teams, and tackling complex technical challenges

Requirements

• Office Location Requirement: Ability to work from R | V Tech’s Palo Alto Offices at least three days per week is required for this role
• Work From Home: Ability to work from home two days a week is supported as well.
• On-Call: Participation in a rotating on-call schedule, including occasional weekends, late nights, and holidays, to resolve critical production issues is also required
• A Bachelor's degree in Engineering is required at a minimum
• Strong foundation in Software Engineering principles and Distributed systems design
• Strong understanding of application authentication like OIDC and authorization models based on oauth. Building In skillsets, knowledge of ORY.sh, Okta or similar platform to implement permission management or user entitlements in services is highly preferred.
• Proficiency in Go (GoLang) Programming, and Python, with demonstrated experience building production-grade applications.
• Good understanding with multi-tier secure and scalable web patterns using REST & WSS
• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS, and familiarity with cloud-native patterns
• Expertise in event-driven architecture and working with message brokers such as Kafka, Druid, and/or Pinot
• Knowledge of Redis for caching, session storage, or distributed data structures
• Solid understanding of systems debugging, production, and monitoring tools such as Datadog and Amazon CloudWatch
• Experience with unit testing, system testing, and performance testing
• Experience building cost effective and efficient designs in your technology choices
• Strong knowledge of Git for version control and collaboration
• Ability to self-manage and drive projects to completion while working independently
• Familiarity with CI/CD tools like Jenkins and GitLab CI/CD is also preferred.
• Familiarity with communications protocols like Protobuf & GRPC is highly preferred.
• Knowledge of containerization and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Familiarity with Cloud infrastructure provisioning tools like Terraform, Terragrunt, Crossplane, ArgoCD
• Familiarity Agentic frameworks and protocols such as MCP, ACP, etc is a real plus
• Familiarity with AI First tools such as Cursor, Glean, etc
• Masters in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is strongly preferred, but not required.

Responsibilities

• Experience with technical team leadership for a team of mid-level & Senior engineers across multiple locales
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand system requirements and translate them into scalable technical solutions
• Actively participate in long term strategic roadmap across Data Platform initiatives
• Design, develop, and deploy distributed & API-based backend applications and microservices for R | V Tech's Vehicle Data Services Team with a focus on scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Work with event-driven architectures, leveraging technologies like Kafka, Druid, Pinot and Redis to build efficient and fault-tolerant systems.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code and ensure robust test coverage.
• Implement, monitor, and debug applications, ensuring high availability and low latency.
• Develop, deploy, and maintain solutions on cloud platforms, particularly AWS.
• Manage and optimize message brokers and implement streaming and queuing solutions as required.
• Proactively identify and address performance bottlenecks, scalability challenges, and production issues.
• Participate in an on-call rotation, addressing production issues during off-hours as necessary.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation for systems, processes, and tools.
• Continuously improve CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, and alerting systems.

Benefits

• Total compensation packages for this position include base salary, eligibility for an annual performance bonus, and eligibility for equity. In addition, our benefits package has been designed to support the health and wellness of our employees. Benefit offerings include Flex Time Off, retirement savings plans as well as medical, vision and dental coverage.

What This Job Offers

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