Sr. Staff Recruiter, Autonomy

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.

• Directly elevates the talent bar for Autonomy by landing senior ICs who unlock our longterm roadmap.
• Impacts Rivian's ability to deliver safe, scalable selfdriving capabilities to customers.
• Shapes how we compete for top AI/ML talent in one of the most competitive markets globally.

• Act as a trusted advisor to Autonomy leaders, translating business and product roadmaps into clear hiring plans across Senior and Staff engineering roles, with exposure to Principallevel searches as needed.
• Run structured intake and calibration sessions that clarify role scope, success profiles, and interview focus areas, ensuring alignment on bar and tradeoffs before launching searches.
• Provide realtime market intelligence on AI/ML and Robotics talent trends, compensation dynamics, and geo strategies to inform headcount planning and leveling decisions.

• Own endtoend recruiting for prioritized Autonomy roles-from sourcing strategy and outreach through offer negotiation and close.
• Build targeted sourcing campaigns for highly specialized profiles (e.g., ML Infrastructure, Perception, Planning/Controls, Localization), mixing outbound, referrals, events, and talent communities.
• Drive a differentiated candidate experience that reflects Rivian's values, including hightouch communication, thoughtful storytelling, and transparent expectation setting.
• Partner with hiring managers to assess and calibrate consistently, ensuring that every hire meets or exceeds the agreed seniority and impact expectations.

• Identify and remove "process debt" in Autonomy recruiting-simplifying workflows, eliminating friction, and shortening timetohire without compromising bar.
• Use data from our ATS and recruiting tools to diagnose funnel health, highlight bottlenecks, and recommend specific changes to interview loops, sourcing mix, or leveling assumptions.
• Pilot and adopt AIassisted recruiting tools (e.g., for sourcing, screening, scheduling, and insights) in alignment with Rivian's standards for data security and candidate privacy.

• Build and maintain longterm pipelines of Senior and Staff engineering talent from top research labs, academia, industry leaders, and emerging talent hubs.
• Develop market maps and competitive intelligence for Autonomy talent across key regions, keeping an active pulse on companies, teams, and communities aligned to our hiring needs.
• Engage passive candidates through longhorizon relationship building, events, and content that authentically reflects Rivian's mission and Autonomy vision.

• Collaborate with People Partners, Compensation, Finance, and Talent Operations to align hiring with headcount plans, leveling guidance, and compensation frameworks.
• Partner with Recruiting Operations to refine interview design, scoring rubrics, and decision forums for Autonomy roles.
• Share best practices and mentor other recruiters, contributing to a culture of craft excellence, continuous learning, and inclusion across the broader TA team.

• 8+ years of fullcycle technical recruiting experience, with 3+ years focused on AI, Machine Learning, Autonomy, Robotics, or closely related deeptech domains.
• Demonstrated domain fluency across the AI/ML ecosystem, including familiarity with:
• Common frameworks and tooling (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Specialized hardware (e.g., GPUs, TPUs, accelerators).
• Distinctions between ML Infrastructure, Data/Platform, and Perception/Planning/Controls roles.
• Proven ability to hire Senior and Stafflevel engineers in highly competitive markets, including building and closing complex multioffer situations.
• Strong data literacy, with experience using recruiting metrics and dashboards to diagnose funnel health, influence stakeholders, and iterate on process and bar.
• Demonstrated ability to operate in ambiguity, manage competing priorities across multiple searches, and execute with urgency in a fastmoving environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the capacity to translate complex technical work into compelling candidate narratives and clear hiring recommendations.
• Track record of building inclusive, structured interview processes that reduce bias and result in diverse, highperforming teams.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.

• Proven track record of successfully hiring Senior, Staff, Principal, and Distinguishedlevel engineers in highly competitive AI/ML or Robotics markets.
• Experience influencing VP and Directorlevel stakeholders, including driving improvements in hiring standards, interview design, calibration practices, and talent strategy.
• Experience recruiting for Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Advanced Perception, Planning, Mapping/Localization, or largescale ML infrastructure teams.
• Background in highgrowth or frontier tech environments (e.g., EV, AV, deep tech, largescale AI platforms) where priorities and org structures evolve rapidly.
• Demonstrated ability to build from scratch-including recruiting processes, interview loops, calibration frameworks, and market maps for new technical domains or locations.
• Genuine curiosity for AI research, autonomy advances, and emerging tooling, including regularly following key conferences, publications, and practitioner communities.

The salary range for this role is USD 176,200-220,300 for SoCalbased applicants, and USD 191,600-239,500 for NorCalbased applicants. This is the lowesttohighest 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 an 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 on 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). This job is not expected to be closed before April 2, 2026.

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.

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.