Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies
Sr. Staff Systems Engineer
$218K–$300K
Irvine, California · Hybrid · Senior Staff · Full-time · Posted Oct 1, 2026
- Experience
- 8+ years; must include taking a feature from concept to production release.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical, Electrical, Automotive, Mechatronics, or Controls Engineering; Master's preferred.
About the job
Owns end-to-end definition, allocation, release, and validation of vehicle motion-control features across vehicle programs, with a focus on traction control, all-wheel drive, and torque vectoring.
What you'll do
- Define feature architecture, requirements, interfaces, and controller allocation, maintaining traceability through verification.
- Plan and author validation across SIL, HIL, component, and vehicle levels; triage failures and troubleshoot bench, proving-ground, and fleet issues.
- Coordinate technical decisions and release commitments with VW Group engineering and cross-functional teams; support safety work and use AI-assisted tools to improve engineering delivery.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical, Electrical, Automotive, Mechatronics, or Controls Engineering.
- 8+ years of systems engineering experience focused on vehicle dynamics, chassis controls, or brake systems, including taking a feature from concept to production release.
- Working knowledge of Traction Control, All-Wheel Drive, and Torque Vectoring control strategies; experience managing requirements with traceability to verification.
- Automotive network/interface and validation experience, Python scripting comfort, understanding of ISO 26262, and demonstrated use of AI coding assistants or AI-powered engineering analysis tools.
Nice to have
- Experience owning the technical interface to a partner organization in a joint venture, OEM–OEM, or OEM–Tier 1 program.
- Familiarity with braking and stability regulations, zonal or service-oriented architectures, by-wire systems, calibration tools, MBSE, simulation-driven trade studies, or winter/proving-ground testing.
Pay
$218.2K – $300.1K (base salary); annual bonus target of 15% (bonus target; amount not specified)
Tools
Jama, Flow, DOORS, CAN FD, FlexRay, Python, ISO 26262, ARXML
AI focus
Actively use AI-assisted tools, including LLM-based coding assistants, automated requirements and test-case generation, and AI-enhanced data analysis, to improve engineering deliverables; demonstrated use of AI coding assistants or AI-powered analysis tools is required.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative