Sr. Battery Engineer

Role Summary

Join Rivian as a Sr. Battery Engineer within the ESS Product Excellence team, based in our Franklin office. In this role, you will support the sustaining engineering of HV battery systems that are already in production, with a heavy focus on field performance analysis, reliability, and service issue mitigation. You will also assist in documenting and communicating lessons learned and Design for Manufacturing (DFM) input into next‑generation battery designs.

If you are a self‑starter with foundational battery systems experience, a passion for diagnosing complex issues in the field, and a desire to shape the design of our future products, we want to hear from you. Help us keep the world adventurous forever.

• Support sustaining engineering for in‑production HV battery systems

  • Assist the team’s liaison activities between Service, Reliability, Reman, FAME, Plant ME/PE/Ops, Supplier Quality, and Product Development to drive durable solutions to battery issues observed in the field and at service centers.

  • Maintain a system‑level view of how hardware, BMS software, diagnostics, and vehicle usage patterns interact to impact customer experience.

• Field performance analysis and service issue mitigation

  • Analyze field, warranty, and ongoing reliability test data to detect trends, characterize emerging failure modes, and quantify risk to customers and the business.

  • Support root cause investigations for HV battery‑related field and service issues (e.g., no‑start, reduced performance, diagnostic trouble codes, degradation anomalies), driving permanent corrective and preventive actions.

  • Assist Service Engineering and Technical Support to define, refine, and validate diagnostic strategies, service procedures, and repair paths, ensuring they are robust, efficient, and safe for field execution.

  • Support prioritization and monitoring of field actions (e.g., service campaigns, software updates, component changes).

• Design Feed‑Forward and Continuous Improvement

  • Collect and document lessons learned from field and production back into battery architecture, component selection, and integration strategies for current and future programs.

  • Collaborate with Manufacturing Engineering, Reman, and Supplier Quality to improve build robustness, yield, rework/repair strategies, and remanufacturing flows for HV battery assemblies.

  • Support design decisions to improve service access, diagnostic coverage, component modularity, and repairability, minimizing customer downtime and total cost of ownership.

  • Support the development and maturation of cross‑functional processes (PD, ME, Ops, Service, Reliability, Reman) that tie together design, manufacturing, and field data to accelerate problem detection and resolution.

• Technical Documentation and Communication

  • Analyze test and field data, author clear technical reports, and present findings and recommendations to engineering leadership and cross‑functional partners.

  • Create and maintain system‑level documentation (e.g., requirements, DFMEAs inputs, fault trees, test plans/summary reports) that connect observed issues back to design and process controls.

• Experience & Education

  • 3-5 years of experience in Battery, Automotive, Aerospace, or related industries, with exposure to HV battery systems, field performance, or failure analysis.

  • A bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline (e.g., Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Automotive, etc) or equivalent years of work experience.

• Technical Skills

  • Good understanding of HV battery system architecture, including cells, modules, pack, contractors, pyros, sensing, cooling, BMS hardware/software, and vehicle interfaces.

  • Familiarity with field issue root cause analysis, including use of telematics, warranty, and diagnostic data to drive corrective and preventive actions.

  • Basic proficiency or coursework experience using CAN/vehicle communication tools and data analysis environments (e.g., Vector tools, CANoe/CANape, Python, MATLAB, Databricks, Hex) for debugging and trend analysis.

  • Some working knowledge of battery diagnostics.

  • Familiarity with DFM/DFS/DFR principles, production test strategies (e.g., End‑of‑Line), and their…