Sr. Vehicle Build Technician II

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 RIV-4 VQAF Technician supports vehicle quality, fleet readiness, and execution across assigned vehicles, programs, and subsystem workstreams. This role is responsible for organizing and performing day-to-day technician activities with a strong build-in-quality mindset, identifying quality concerns early, driving follow-through, and partnering closely with engineering, operations, and quality stakeholders to deliver high-quality outcomes. At the RIV-4 level, the technician is expected to work with growing autonomy, manage assignments with multiple inputs and deliverables, communicate clearly across teams, and contribute practical improvements to processes, documentation, and execution standards.

• Develop and execute strategies with the team to exceed goals within an assigned area of responsibility, such as a specific fleet, vehicle group, support program, or subsystem, while contributing to broader cross-functional goals and readiness needs.
• Ability when needed to Independently execute and continuously improve deliverables, technician workflows, inspection methods, documentation, and handoffs within the VQAF function.
• Own complex and sometimes ambiguous assignments end-to-end with team support across multiple vehicles, stakeholders, or locations, taking initiative to unblock issues and move work forward without waiting for perfect definition.
• Ability to act independently to define methods, test approaches, work sequencing, and execution plans for new or changing assignments, while escalating risk early and bringing forward practical recommendations.
• Serve as a day-to-day technical lead or facilitator when needed, coordinating work across technicians and partner teams including engineering, events, communications,
• studio, operations, and program stakeholders to deliver work on time and to a high standard.
• Support VQAF activities such as fleet maintenance, special-project support, vehicle recovery, specialty wheel support, wrap and detail coordination, vehicle buy-offs and walkthroughs, and showcase/event preparation.
• Maintain clear communication on priorities, dependencies, timing, and tradeoffs; provide timely feedback when priorities shift and explain the impact to project scope, timing, or team capacity.
• Organize and manage active projects, balancing competing assignments while maintaining quality, urgency, and professionalism under changing business needs.
• Lead or support issue triage, containment, and follow-up by clearly documenting defects, failure modes, risks, recommended next steps, and execution status.
• Create and maintain accurate documentation, shift notes, process flows, reports, work instructions, and status updates needed to keep work visible and repeatable across the team.
• Identify recurring friction points and propose improved procedures, standards, templates, tooling, or coordination methods that raise team performance over time.
• Build strong working relationships with technicians, group leaders, engineers, and partner teams by being reliable, solution-oriented, and clear in both written and verbal communication.

• High school diploma or GED preferred, with relevant experience in manufacturing, assembly, quality processes, automotive repair, prototype support, or mechanical technician work.
• Moderate to high ability to troubleshoot vehicle concerns, including electrical and non-electrical issues, and to execute repairs, inspections, validation checks, and rework support with attention to detail.
• Experience using common inspection, audit, and measurement tools such as torque tools, calipers, gauges, OBD tools, or comparable shop and validation equipment.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple priorities, shifting schedules, and competing requests in a fast-paced environment.
• Working knowledge of issue tracking, documentation, and data systems, with the ability to follow agreed concern-management processes and maintain clean, useful records.
• Ability to communicate clearly across technicians, engineers, and partner teams, including leading meetings, documenting actions, and aligning on next steps.
• Demonstrated build-in-quality mindset, including raising concerns early, supporting prevention, and contributing to continuous improvement instead of only reacting to problems.
• Ability to work safely in shop, garage, test, and production-adjacent environments, including standing, lifting, climbing, and working around moderate noise, dust, and varying temperatures as needed.
• Owns complex work with a high degree of initiative and follow-through.
• Gives well-reasoned recommendations, not just status updates.
• Helps define how work should be done when the path is unclear.
• Can coordinate multiple people and moving parts without losing detail.
• Improves team effectiveness through stronger process, documentation, and communication.
• Provides clear feedback when shifting priorities creates risk to timing, quality, or capacity.

The Hourly Pay Range for this role is $37.42 - $46.77 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 [email protected] .

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.