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. 

Vehicle Validation at Rivian ensures every product delivers exceptional function, quality, reliability, and real-world performance. We perform both verification and validation against data-driven requirements that reflect how our customers use our vehicles—leveraging scalable analytics, integrated data pipelines, and validation governance frameworks to continuously improve how we plan, execute, and learn.

As a Senior Data Scientist, Vehicle Validation, you will develop and scale data products, analytics frameworks, and modeling approaches that enable visibility into validation coverage, risk, and readiness from concept through launch and into early field performance.

You will partner closely with Validation TPMs, Engineering, Quality, Test & Development, and Data Engineering to transform fragmented validation data into clear, actionable insights—helping ensure the right tests happen at the right time and that leadership has a clear view of validation status and risk.

This is a RIV-5 scope role: you will own key analytics workstreams within the validation data ecosystem, operating with guidance from validation and technical leadership while building toward greater end-to-end ownership over time.

• Develop and maintain validation dashboards, analytics, and reporting that provide visibility into validation coverage, maturity, risk, and residuals across programs.
• Build and support data models that connect requirements (RL0–RL3), DFMEA / NUDDs, DVPs, test execution, and issue tracking into a cohesive validation data framework.
• Create and maintain data pipelines that ingest and structure data from systems such as Jira, test logs, vehicle telemetry, and other internal tools.
• Apply statistical and machine learning techniques (e.g., trend analysis, forecasting, anomaly detection) to identify risks, gaps, and opportunities within validation data.
• Partner with Validation TPMs and cross-functional teams to translate data into actionable insights that support program execution and decision making.
• Support the definition and tracking of validation KPIs (e.g., coverage, confidence, defect trends, closure rates, readiness metrics).
• Contribute to validation governance by enabling consistent, reliable, and accessible data across builds and milestones (DV → PV → SOP+).
• Identify data gaps or inconsistencies and work with stakeholders to improve data quality, structure, and usability.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of validation data infrastructure, tools, and processes to increase efficiency and scalability.

• Typically 3–6 years of experience in data science, analytics, or related roles within automotive or other complex hardware/software products.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Experience building data pipelines and analytics solutions (e.g., Python, SQL, and cloud platforms such as AWS or GCP).
• Experience developing dashboards and visualizations (e.g. Hex, or similar) to support operational decision making.
• Experience working with large, multi-source datasets and building structured data models.
• Familiarity with machine learning techniques and their practical application to real-world problems.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work across technical and non-technical teams.
• Comfortable working in ambiguous environments with a willingness to learn new domains and systems quickly.
• Passion for improving product quality, reliability, and customer experience through data.

The salary range for this role is $135,100 - $168,900 for California based applicants. This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, shift, and organizational needs.

The successful candidate may be eligible for annual performance bonus and equity awards. 

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits for full-time and part-time employees, their spouse or domestic partner, and children up to age 26, including but not limited to paid vacation, paid sick leave, and a competitive portfolio of insurance benefits including life, medical, dental, vision, short-term disability insurance, and long-term disability insurance to eligible employees. You may also have the opportunity to participate in Rivian’s 401(k) Plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program if you meet certain eligibility requirements. Full-time employee coverage is effective on their first day of employment. Part-time employee coverage is effective the first of the month following 90 days of employment. More information about benefits is available at rivianbenefits.com . 

You can apply for this role through careers.rivian.com (or through internal-careers-rivian.icims.com if you are a current employee). There is no fixed deadline for this application; applications are accepted on an ongoing basis until the role is filled or the opening is no longer needed.

Equal Opportunity

Rivian is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information or characteristics, physical or mental disability, marital/domestic partner status, age, military/veteran status, medical condition, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Rivian is committed to ensuring that our hiring process is accessible for persons with disabilities. If you have a disability or limitation, such as those covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, that requires accommodations to assist you in the search and application process, please email us at  candidateaccommodations@rivian.com .

Candidate Data Privacy

Rivian may collect, use and disclose your personal information or personal data (within the meaning of the applicable data protection laws) when you apply for employment and/or participate in our recruitment processes (“Candidate Personal Data”). This data includes contact, demographic, communications, educational, professional, employment, social media/website, network/device, recruiting system usage/interaction, security and preference information. Rivian may use your Candidate Personal Data for the purposes of (i) tracking interactions with our recruiting system; (ii) carrying out, analyzing and improving our application and recruitment process, including assessing you and your application and conducting employment, background and reference checks; (iii) establishing an employment relationship or entering into an employment contract with you; (iv) complying with our legal, regulatory and corporate governance obligations; (v) recordkeeping; (vi) ensuring network and information security and preventing fraud; and (vii) as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law.

Rivian may share your Candidate Personal Data with (i) internal personnel who have a need to know such information in order to perform their duties, including individuals on our People Team, Finance, Legal, and the team(s) with the position(s) for which you are applying; (ii) Rivian affiliates; and (iii) Rivian’s service providers, including providers of background checks, staffing services, and cloud services.

Rivian may transfer or store internationally your Candidate Personal Data, including to or in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union and in the cloud, and this data may be subject to the laws and accessible to the courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of such jurisdictions. 

Please note that we are currently not accepting applications from third party application services.