Senior Manager, Hardware Engineering Platforms; EE & PLM

About Us

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.

RV Tech Enterprise IT is building a modern, scalable, and automation‑first technology foundation to support advanced software and hardware development. Our objective is to design deeply integrated engineering platforms that accelerate product development while minimizing operational complexity.

We are seeking a Senior Manager, Hardware Engineering Platforms (EE & PLM) to own the strategy, architecture, and delivery of RV Tech’s electrical engineering and product lifecycle management technology ecosystem.

This role owns RV Tech’s end‑to‑end hardware engineering digital platform landscape. You will evaluate the current toolset, define the future‑state architecture, and build a multi‑year roadmap spanning PLM, EE design tools, requirements management, simulation, and downstream integrations.

You are not a tool owner. You are a platform architect and portfolio strategist.

This is a rare opportunity to lead the evolution of hardware engineering platforms at RV Tech during a phase of transformational growth. You’ll define the future‑state architecture for EE and PLM, shape the digital backbone of product development, and ensure we scale with speed, simplicity, and engineering excellence. If you’re passionate about building integrated engineering platforms and want to make a big impact, we want to hear from you.

This role is located in our Palo Alto or Irvine, California office with a flexible 3 day a week in office schedule.

• Own the multi‑year Hardware Engineering Platforms roadmap aligned to product and engineering strategy.
• Evaluate the existing EE, PLM, and requirements toolset and define future‑state architecture.
• Lead platform evaluations, selections, and implementations.
• Drive consolidation and elimination of redundant tools.
• Design system architecture, integrations, data models, and digital thread across:
  • PLM
  • EE CAD / Schematic / PCB tools
  • Requirements & systems engineering
  • Simulation & validation
  • Manufacturing & downstream consumers
• Establish scalable support and maintenance models (internal, near‑shore, vendors).
• Ensure security, IP protection, access controls, and compliance.
• Own vendor relationships, commercials, and renewals.
• Build and lead a small team of engineering platform owners / analysts.
• Define KPIs for reliability, adoption, cycle‑time reduction, and automation.
• Designing digital threads, not disconnected tools.
• Translating engineering workflows into platform architecture.
• Killing complexity early.
• Driving standardization over customization.
• Balancing best‑of‑breed vs suite decisions pragmatically.

• 10+ years in Engineering Systems, PLM, or Digital Engineering Platforms.
• Hands‑on experience with modern PLM and EE ecosystems (e.g., Siemens Teamcenter, PTC Windchill, Dassault 3
  
  DEXPERIENCE, Altium, Cadence, Mentor/Siemens, or similar).
• Experience owning enterprise engineering platform transformations.
• Strong understanding of hardware development lifecycle.
• Experience integrating PLM with downstream systems and data platforms.
• Strong vendor and commercial management experience.
• Executive‑level communication and influence.

Salary Range for Palo Alto, California applicants: $173,000 - $216,300 USD.

Salary Range for Irvine, California applicants: $159,20 - $199,000 USD.

The posted salary represents the lowest and highest ranges RV Tech reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for the position. Any posted salary range pertains only to the estimated starting pay for the role. Actual starting pay is based on a number of factors, including, but not…