Hardware Systems Performance Architect - Infotainment

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.

About the role

In this position, you will lead efforts within the Hardware Systems Architecture team to characterize performance of low-voltage electrical (LVE) systems in Rivian vehicles. The aim is to drive hardware architecture decision-making in early development stages and validate system designs in later stages of the development cycle. This hardware architecture role requires familiarity with systems software to identify and quantify system-level performance metrics, anticipate key design risks, and validate system architecture performance against requirements.

This role spans the characterization of computational, network, sensor, and power-related performance dimensions of various LVE subsystems, including infotainment, telematics, wireless connectivity, networking, passive entry, camera monitoring systems, and more.

Responsibilities

• Drive collaboration between hardware architecture, hardware design, and software application teams to create comprehensive characterization plans. These plans will surface key performance metrics, provide insight into system bottlenecks and chokepoints, reveal over-/under-design scenarios, and validate system performance relative to system requirements.
• Work cross-functionally to factor high-level functional and performance requirements into their respective subsystems, distill them into clear system architecture performance requirements capable of validation, and evolve these requirements into future architecture.
• Lead and support the design, integration, and automation efforts related to characterization and validation activities on various hardware testing configurations, including early prototype boards, bench-top subsystem mock-ups, lab cars, mules, and other HIL infrastructure.
• Orchestrate the end-to-end development of systems and automation for performance characterization, ranging from development of requirements to identification of solutions and their implementation. This includes integration of hardware and software, establishment of control and data acquisition pipelines, and development of downstream data processing infrastructure.
• Execute characterization plans, leverage analytical methods, and present clear validation metrics and reports that support data-driven architectural decisions and validate the resulting designs.
• Contribute to mock-ups or prototypes to study next-gen technologies, establish proofs-of-concept, and/or serve as reference platforms for future bring-up, system integration, system-level validation, or future architecture inclusion.

Requirements

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, with 7+ years of hands-on experience in relevant practical settings.
• Experience designing and/or validating embedded systems optimized for distributed architecture settings, including automotive, aerospace, or other architecturally similar applications.
• Strong understanding of embedded computing platforms and methods for quantifying performance of their processors, memory/storage systems, and peripheral interfaces.
• Conversant with software platforms for embedded computing architectures typical in automotive applications like infotainment, wireless connectivity, telematics, or ADAS, ranging from OS to RTOS to bare-metal, and respective performance measurement methodologies.
• Solid grasp of power-related aspects of distributed embedded architectures, with a focus on efficient low-power states, wake propagation, and sequencing.
• Familiarity with camera sensors and/or downstream processing pipelines, including their data formats, ISPs, DSPs, and how to characterize key performance aspects.
• Deep understanding of on- and off-board high-speed automotive interfaces and networks, such as PCIe, GMSL, FPD-Link, Ethernet, A2B, USB, CAN-FD, and how to characterize their utilization and performance.
• Hands-on coding experience related to embedded platform bring-up, system software/applications development, or system-level hardware performance instrumentation, and related test automation/scripting.
• Conversant with wireless technologies like BLE, LTE, 5G, and/or Wi-Fi, and their performance evaluation at the protocol and systems integration levels.
• Talent for working from first principles to develop software for modeling, data acquisition, mining, analysis, and presentation using appropriate tools (e.g., Python, MATLAB).
• Innate curiosity to figure out how systems work by decomposing them through fundamental principles, an ability to translate this into measurable metrics, and a drive to leverage these methods to optimize design.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive base salary, full-time positions may be eligible to participate in our annual company performance bonus program. Payments are discretionary and not guaranteed; actual amounts depend on company results and the terms of the plan in effect and require active employment at the time of payout. This role is also eligible for equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), subject to board approval and the terms of our equity incentive plans, including applicable vesting requirements.

We invest in our people with a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the health, wellbeing, and financial future for full-time employees — including health coverage, retirement savings, time off, and family planning programs. Offerings vary by country.

Pay

Compensation range: $167,400 – $209,300 per year.