Sr. Staff Engineer, Autonomy Triage

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 Autonomy Triage team is responsible for the triage infrastructure and workflows that close the loop between what drivers experience on the road and how our autonomy stack evolves. As a Sr Staff Triage Engineer, you'll own the architecture of the systems and methodology that turns unlabeled miles into actionable signals; defining how we detect, classify, and root-cause undesired behavior at scale. This is a technically deep, high-ownership role at the intersection of data engineering, ML systems, and autonomy validation. You'll work directly with perception, planning, systems, and safety teams to ensure the right events surface from hundreds of millions of miles of customer and simulation data; and that the signatures we build today will be relevant and applicable as our system scales across both consumer features and L4 robotaxi. Responsibilities ● Define and lead the strategy and execution for L4 autonomy triage at scale ● Define and own the end-to-end triage pipeline: from event detection through feature metric parity analysis, classification, and root cause analysis ● Enhance the ground truth infrastructure that ties driver-reported symptoms to event signatures, enabling precision and recall measurement of our feature metrics ● Drive the methodology for evaluating metric parity between on-road and simulation environments ● Ensure on-road signatures and sim metrics are in sync and representative of real world scenarios, and that gaps are continuously closed through focused feedback cycles ● Establish coverage benchmarks and drive the roadmap for expanding triage coverage across new scenarios, geographies, and ODD boundaries Qualifications ● Graduate degree in engineering, preferably in CS, electrical or mechanical engineering ● 10+ years of engineering experience, with at least 5 years developing autonomous vehicle systems, preferably Level 4 systems. ● Deep familiarity with the full AV development loop, autonomy systems, sensor modalities, and end-to-end triage process; data collection, labeling pipelines, metric frameworks, simulation, and safety validation ● Hands-on experience designing or owning triage, disengagement analysis, or event detection systems at scale ● Strong problem solving skills in a highly cross functional and fast paced environment ● Strong data engineering fundamentals: large-scale data pipelines, feature extraction, and event querying across structured and unstructured driving data ● Experience with ML model development or deployment — particularly classification or anomaly detection in time-series or sensor data ● Proficiency with Python and SQL; experience working with LLMs or prompt-based pipelines is a strong plus Pay Disclosure The salary range for this role is $265,000 - $331,300 for San Francisco Bay Area 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. 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. 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. 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Please note that we are currently not accepting applications from third party application services. ● Define and lead the strategy and execution for L4 autonomy triage at scale ● Define and own the end-to-end triage pipeline: from event detection through feature metric parity analysis, classification, and root cause analysis ● Enhance the ground truth infrastructure that ties driver-reported symptoms to event signatures, enabling precision and recall measurement of our feature metrics ● Drive the methodology for evaluating metric parity between on-road and simulation environments ● Ensure on-road signatures and sim metrics are in sync and representative of real world scenarios, and that gaps are continuously closed through focused feedback cycles ● Establish coverage benchmarks and drive the roadmap for expanding triage coverage across new scenarios, geographies, and ODD boundaries ● Graduate degree in engineering, preferably in CS, electrical or mechanical engineering ● 10+ years of engineering experience, with at least 5 years developing autonomous vehicle systems, preferably Level 4 systems. ● Deep familiarity with the full AV development loop, autonomy systems, sensor modalities, and end-to-end triage process; data collection, labeling pipelines, metric frameworks, simulation, and safety validation ● Hands-on experience designing or owning triage, disengagement analysis, or event detection systems at scale ● Strong problem solving skills in a highly cross functional and fast paced environment ● Strong data engineering fundamentals: large-scale data pipelines, feature extraction, and event querying across structured and unstructured driving data ● Experience with ML model development or deployment — particularly classification or anomaly detection in time-series or sensor data ● Proficiency with Python and SQL; experience working with LLMs or prompt-based pipelines is a strong plus