Sr. Radar Signal Processing Engineer

Position: Sr. Staff Radar Signal Processing Engineer
About Rivian

Rivian is on a mission to keep the world adventurous forever. This goes for the emissions-free Electric Adventure Vehicles we build, and the curious, courageous souls we seek to attract.

As a company, we constantly challenge what's possible, never simply accepting what has always been done. We reframe old problems, seek new solutions and operate comfortably in areas that are unknown. Our backgrounds are diverse, but our team shares a love of the outdoors and a desire to protect it for future generations.

Role Summary

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Sr. Staff Radar DSP Engineer to work alongside an experienced, cross-functional team to help define the signal processing architecture for our next-generation, high-performance 4D imaging RADAR. This role requires deep, hands-on expertise in radar signal processing theory and practice, and the ability to help design and deliver the algorithms and DSP pipeline that will drive industry-leading detection, resolution, and perception performance.

As a senior technical contributor on radar DSP, you will help shape the algorithmic roadmap, drive performance to state-of-the-art KPIs, and partner closely with hardware, firmware, and perception teams to bring the pipeline into production.

Responsibilities

• Work with an experienced, cross-functional team to design, develop, and optimize the signal processing algorithms and DSP pipeline for a high-performance 4D imaging RADAR, from raw ADC data through detections and point-cloud output.
• Help define and drive the radar processing chain architecture, including waveform design, MIMO/virtual array processing, beamforming, range-Doppler-angle estimation, and super-resolution angle estimation techniques.
• Contribute to the technical roadmap for achieving industry-leading KPIs in range, velocity, and angular resolution, detection probability, false alarm rate, and dynamic range.
• Develop and optimize core algorithms including CFAR detection, clutter and interference mitigation, micro-Doppler processing, tracking, and point-cloud generation for 4D imaging output (range, Doppler, azimuth, elevation).
• Design and implement real-time, compute- and memory-efficient DSP pipelines suitable for deployment on embedded/automotive-grade hardware (DSP cores, FPGA, or custom ASIC/SoC).
• Build high-fidelity simulation, modeling, and algorithm validation frameworks (MATLAB, Python, C++) to characterize algorithm performance ahead of hardware availability.
• Evaluate and integrate state-of-the-art techniques, including MIMO waveform design, digital beamforming, sparse array processing, and interference mitigation for dense multi-radar environments.
• Collaborate with AI/ML teams to develop and deploy deep learning-based radar perception models (e.g., detection, segmentation, classification) operating directly on radar cubes or point clouds.
• Partner closely with RF/hardware, firmware, and systems engineering teams to ensure the DSP pipeline is co-optimized with antenna design, RF front-end, and compute architecture.
• Drive rigorous performance characterization and validation of algorithms against system-level requirements, including field testing and benchmarking against competitive systems.
• Mentor and collaborate with DSP/algorithm engineers across the team, helping establish best practices for algorithm development, code quality, and validation.
• Stay ahead of industry and academic advancements in radar signal processing, automotive/robotics radar, and imaging radar technology, and translate relevant advances into the product roadmap.
• Coordinate with external partners, chipset vendors, and research institutions on next-generation radar processing technologies.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field, with a focus on signal processing or radar systems.
• 8+ years of experience developing signal processing algorithms and DSP pipelines for RADAR systems, with demonstrated expertise in imaging or high-resolution automotive/robotics RADAR.
• Deep expertise in radar signal processing fundamentals: waveform design (FMCW/chirp), range-Doppler processing, MIMO virtual array synthesis, digital beamforming, and angle-of-arrival estimation (e.g., FFT-based, MUSIC, ESPRIT, or compressed sensing approaches).
• Strong hands-on experience developing detection and tracking algorithms, including CFAR variants, clutter suppression, and multi-target tracking.
• Proven ability to design DSP pipelines that meet real-time, low-latency constraints on embedded and automotive-grade compute platforms.
• Strong proficiency in MATLAB, Python, and C/C++ for algorithm modeling, simulation, and production implementation.
• Experience with sensor fusion, including fusing RADAR with LiDAR, camera, and IMU data for perception tasks.
• Experience applying deep learning to radar data (raw cube, range-Doppler maps, or point clouds) is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with RF/antenna system design principles and their interplay…