Senior Materials Engineer - Metals in Plymouth

About Rivian: 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.

Role Summary: The Senior Materials Engineer, Metals will lead material selection, validation, and problem solving across ferrous metal systems with secondary support for light-metal applications. This engineer must operate with meaningful autonomy, manage multiple technical inputs, and drive decisions across design, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain teams internal and external to Rivian. The ideal candidate has deep metallurgical expertise in steels, practical knowledge of light metals, and can apply that knowledge to unlock improvements in product performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost. An ability to navigate full product lifecycle problems from concept to customer experience is critical to success.

Responsibilities:

• Lead material selection and technology development for steel and ferrous alloys on all Rivian products.
• Provide light-metal materials support when necessary within a broader team of metallurgical experts.
• Define material requirements, specifications, validation plans, and acceptance criteria for components, assemblies, and manufacturing processes involving metals.
• Partner with design, CAE, manufacturing, quality, corrosion, durability, purchasing, and supplier development teams to ensure material performance targets are achieved.
• Drive failure analysis and root cause investigations related to mechanical properties, microstructure, corrosion, coating performance, heat treatment, joining, and forming of metallic components.
• Evaluate tradeoffs across performance, cost, manufacturability, mass, and supply base capability to arrive at best for Rivian metal technology and processing solutions.
• Support development and release of material standards, test methods, design guidelines, and best practices for engineers, fabricators, production, and service technicians.
• Review and approve supplier technical packages including material data, PPAP-related deliverables, control plans, and process capability data for key metals products.
• Translate laboratory and production findings into clear technical recommendations for engineers, program teams, and leadership.
• Influence cross-functional decisions through concise communication, strong ownership, and data-driven problem solving.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Materials Science, Metallurgical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 5+ years of experience in automotive related product development environments.
• Experience with automotive steel sheet grades such as advanced high strength steels, HSLAs and their processing such as hot rolling, cold rolling and finishing.
• Strong metallurgical background in steels, including phase transformations, heat treatment, hardenability, microstructure-property relationships, weldability, coatings, corrosion mechanisms, and failure modes.
• Working knowledge of aluminum and other light-metal systems including casting, extrusion, sheet, forming, joining, and corrosion considerations.
• Experience supporting end-to-end product development.
• Hands-on experience with microscopy, formability testing, mechanical testing, corrosion evaluation, and interpretation of materials lab and failure analysis report data.
• Familiarity with manufacturing processes such as stamping, hemming, casting, forging, machining, welding, brazing, heat treatment, and surface finishing.
• Proven ability to independently work cross-functionally in fast-moving engineering environments.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical issues clearly to varied audiences.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s or PhD in Materials Science, Metallurgical Engineering, or related discipline.
• Experience with automotive body, chassis, powertrain, battery enclosure, or structural component materials.
• Knowledge of AHSS, UHSS, martensitic steels, stainless steels, aluminum sheet and extrusion alloys, and associated joining strategies.
• Experience with supplier development, APQP/PPAP, DFMEA/PFMEA, control plans, and validation documentation.
• Familiarity with corrosion, environmental durability, and coating systems for vehicle applications.
• Experience developing internal material standards or design requirements.

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.