System Engineer, Charging & Energy

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.

The Staff Systems Engineer, Charging & Energy is a senior individual contributor who owns system‑level outcomes for major charging and energy products and features. You will define and drive architectures, requirements, DFMEAs, and validation strategies that span hardware, firmware, communications, and cloud/mobile interfaces. You operate as a technical leader and integrator – similar to our current Staff Systems Engineers on the team – independently creating and driving critical deliverables to completion, often in ambiguous or under‑resourced spaces, and directly improving the quality of systems engineering within C&E.

This role is expected to:

• Lead multi‑quarter, cross‑functional efforts in the charging and energy domain.
• Serve as the go‑to systems owner for complex, safety‑critical and customer‑critical functions.
• Mentor and uplevel other engineers in systems engineering tools, practices, and decision‑making.

• Own key charging and energy systems and functions across one or more product lines (e.g., DC high‑power chargers, residential/bidirectional chargers, and related control systems), from concept through launch and sustainment.
• Independently create, drive, and complete critical systems engineering deliverables (requirements, DFMEAs, interface definitions, validation plans) — including “thankless” ambiguous work between teams — and ensure they are adopted across programs.
• Lead system‑level trade‑off and design decisions, balancing safety, performance, cost, schedule, and interoperability across hardware, software, and cloud/mobile.
• Develop and execute strategies to exceed goals within the C&E systems function, while contributing meaningfully to cross‑functional product and program goals.

• Define and maintain end‑to‑end system architectures for charging and energy products, spanning:
• Power and electrical architectures (e.g., high‑voltage paths, protection and sensing, power conversion interfaces).
• Embedded control architectures (controllers, interfaces, diagnostics).
• Communication architectures (vehicle, charger, cloud, and mobile; e.g., CAN, Ethernet, IP‑based protocols).
• Own system and interface requirements development, including allocation and traceability across vehicle, charger, cloud, and mobile teams, and ensure sign‑off across all stakeholders.
• Architect and lead DFMEA / functional safety / hazard analysis work at the system level, ensuring vehicle‑ and customer‑level failure modes are comprehensively mapped to subsystem and component mitigations.
• Analyze and evaluate design impacts of new concepts, components, or vendors, making clear, data‑driven recommendations on architecture and design direction.

• Lead requirements coverage and validation strategies across virtual and physical assets (SIL, HIL, bench, lab assets, vehicles) for key charging and energy features.
• Work with validation and test teams to define, review, and improve system/sub‑system DVPs, test plans, and traceability back to requirements and DFMEAs.
• Analyze test and field/telemetry data to identify performance trends, gaps, and systemic issues in charging and energy systems; drive root‑cause analysis and corrective actions across HW/SW/comms domains.
• Proactively fill gaps in testing and validation when resources are constrained, ensuring that critical risks and edge cases are still surfaced and resolved before launch.
• Create and maintain essential systems documentation (architectures, interface control documents, specifications, DFMEAs, test reports), and ensure it is consumable by both technical…