---
title: 'Sr. Data and Platform Engineer at Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/sr-data-and-platform-engineer-rivian-and-volkswagen-group-technologies-irvine-y5kb5nz2ggn1'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Sr. Data and Platform Engineer at Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies

- **Company:** [Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies](https://feeny.ai/companies/rivian-and-volkswagen-group-technologies)
- **Location:** Irvine, CA
- **Compensation:** $122k–$167k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-09-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/rivianvw.tech/e7fb79ff-d00e-4b4e-99ff-58c75c8fe037

## Job description

## About Us

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is a joint venture between two industry leaders with a clear vision for automotive’s next chapter. From operating systems to zonal controllers to cloud and connectivity solutions, we’re addressing the challenges of electric vehicles through technology that will set the standards for software-defined vehicles around the world.

The road to the future is uncharted. By combining our expertise across connectivity, AI, security and more, we’ll map a new way forward. Working together, we’ll create a future that’s more connected, more intelligent, more sustainable for everyone.

## Role Summary

RV Tech is seeking a Data and Platform Engineer to build, deploy, and own the applications, automations, and data flows that our engineering organization runs on. Sitting within the Process, Methods and Tools (PMT) team, you will turn the needs of engineering teams into working software: integrations between our engineering toolchain, automations that remove manual effort from day-to-day process execution, and the data pipelines and reporting that give leadership visibility into how development is progressing. This is a hands-on engineering role with product ownership built into it. You will be the technical builder and the product manager for what you build — gathering requirements directly from your users, prioritizing what gets built next, communicating status and trade-offs to stakeholders, and supporting what you ship once it's live. We are looking for someone who is genuinely comfortable on both sides of that line: writing and deploying production code, and sitting with a stakeholder to work out what they actually need.

## Responsibilities

- Application Development & Deployment: Design, build, deploy, and maintain applications and services that support engineering process execution. You own the full lifecycle — not just the code, but the deployment, monitoring, and support of what you build.
- Automation & Integration: Build integrations and automations across our engineering toolchain (requirements management, issue management, and related systems) to eliminate manual handoffs and keep data consistent between systems.
- Data Management & Reporting: Model, pipeline, and maintain the data behind our process and quality reporting using Databricks, ensuring it is accurate, current, and trusted by the teams and leaders who rely on it.
- Product Ownership: Act as the product manager for your applications and automations. Elicit and document requirements, manage a backlog and roadmap, set expectations on scope and timing, and make prioritization calls with stakeholders across Rivian and VWG.
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Work directly with engineering teams, process owners, and leadership in a global, joint-venture environment. Translate between process intent and technical implementation, and communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Platform & Operations: Manage the AWS and Databricks resources and GitLab CI/CD pipelines that your applications depend on, with an eye on reliability, security, and cost.
- Sustainability: Document what you build and keep it maintainable, so tools and automations survive beyond any single contributor.

## Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

- Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field — or equivalent practical experience.
- Experience: 3+ years of professional software development experience, including applications you have personally taken from concept to production use by real users.
- Python: Strong hands-on proficiency, including building services, automations, and data processing.
- AWS: Practical experience deploying and operating applications on AWS (compute, storage, IAM, networking fundamentals).
- Databricks: Working experience building and maintaining data pipelines and datasets on Databricks (Spark/PySpark, SQL, Delta).
- GitLab: Experience with GitLab for source control and building CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment.
- Product Mindset: Demonstrated experience owning a tool, application, or automation end to end — gathering requirements from stakeholders, setting priorities, and being accountable for the outcome rather than just the ticket.
- Communication & Collaboration: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across time zones and with stakeholders who are not software engineers.
- Autonomy: Comfortable operating with limited direction in a fast-moving environment, identifying what needs to be done and driving it to completion.

## Preferred Qualifications

- Workflow & Low-Code Platforms: Experience with workflow automation or low-code application platforms, and knowing when to reach for one instead of writing a service from scratch.
- Engineering Toolchain: Familiarity with requirements and issue management tools (e.g., Jira, Codebeamer, Polarion, DOORS) and their APIs.
- Reporting & Visualization: Experience building dashboards and reporting layers (e.g., Databricks dashboards, Power BI, Tableau) and defining metrics with stakeholders.
- Infrastructure as Code: Experience with Terraform or similar IaC tooling.
- Front-End: Working knowledge of a modern front-end framework for building usable internal tools.
- Domain: Experience in automotive, or another regulated or safety-critical engineering environment.

Total Rewards We build the exceptional — and we believe the people doing that work should be rewarded accordingly. In addition to a competitive base salary, full-time positions may be is eligible to participate in our annual company performance bonus program.

Payments are discretionary and not guaranteed; actual amounts depend on company results and the terms of the plan in effect, and require active employment at the time of payout. This role is also eligible for equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), subject to board approval and the terms of our equity incentive plans, including applicable vesting requirements.

In addition to our compensation programs, we invest in our people with a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the health, wellbeing, and financial future for full-time employees — including health coverage, retirement savings, time off, and family planning programs. Offerings vary by country. [Learn more about our global benefit programs](https://rvtech.mybenefits.life/).

External candidates can apply for this role through the Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies careers site (https://rivianvw.tech/#careers). If you are a current employee, please apply through our [internal job board](https://app.ashbyhq.com/internal/job-board/b10a9912-eb45-4a84-9a34-84b2a459923a).

## Equal Opportunity

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. 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. We are also committed to ensuring compliance with all applicable fair employment practice laws regarding citizenship and immigration status.

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies 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.

Candidate Data Privacy Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies” 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 and Volkswagen Group Technologies 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) record keeping; (vi) ensuring network and information security and preventing fraud; and (vii) as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law.

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies 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 and Volkswagen Group Technologies affiliates; and (iii) Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies’ service providers, including providers of background checks, staffing services, and cloud services.

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies may transfer or store internationally your Candidate Personal Data, including to or in the United States, Canada, 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.

If you provide a mobile telephone number as part of your application or during the recruitment process, Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies may use that number to contact you via SMS text message for recruitment-related purposes, including scheduling, logistics, and status updates. Message and data rates may apply. You may opt out of SMS communications at any time by replying STOP to any text message you receive from us. Consent to receive SMS messages is not a condition of applying for or being considered for employment. Please see our https://assets.ctfassets.net/2md5qhoeajym/53otRWdzXPzSdWPgiel5T/07c61b0eed2d91f2f403f788fd20d315/RVTech_Candidate_Data_Privacy_Notice_-_Nov_2024.pdf and https://assets.ctfassets.net/2md5qhoeajym/40xUZMehbGToclkLqWXW0E/eb5b553bd8af7c607066253fbb227bda/RVTech_Candidate_Data_Privacy_Notice_-_Nov_2024_Serbian.pdf for more information. -- Please note this job posting represents an open, active vacancy. Additionally, we are not currently accepting applications from third party application services.

## About Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies (RV Tech) is a joint venture developing next-generation electrical architectures and software-defined vehicle platforms for the Volkswagen Group and Rivian.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Joint Venture; 50/50 owned by Rivian and Volkswagen Group)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: November 13, 2024
- **Founders**: Joint venture co-led by Wassym Bensaid (Rivian Chief Software Officer) and Carsten Helbing (Volkswagen Group Chief Technology Officer); established through a transaction agreement between Rivian and Volkswagen Group.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Automotive technology, software development for software-defined vehicles (SDVs)
- **Target customers**: B2B – primarily the Volkswagen Group (brands including Volkswagen, Audi, Scout) and Rivian; potential licensing to other automakers
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To address the challenges of electric vehicles through technologies that set the standards for software-defined vehicles around the world, combining Rivian’s software and electrical hardware expertise with Volkswagen Group’s global scale and vehicle platform competencies.

## Products & Services
- **Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) Architecture**: A modular zonal electronic architecture featuring powerful central computers that control all vehicle functions, enabling over-the-air updates, advanced infotainment, and highly automated driving features. This platform is designed to scale across multiple vehicle segments and brands.
- **Zonal Controllers & Operating Systems**: Rivian’s proven zonal hardware design (reducing ECUs and wiring complexity) integrated with a unified software stack that supports continuous updates and cloud connectivity.
- **Cloud & Connectivity Solutions**: Cloud-based services for vehicle data, remote diagnostics, and lifecycle software updates.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (joint venture; total committed investment from Volkswagen Group up to $5.8 billion by 2027, including $1 billion initial convertible note, $1.3 billion equity at closing, and up to $3.5 billion milestone-based funding).
- **Key Metric**: Total committed investment: $5.8 billion; Employee count: ~1,500 (as of late 2025, with 108.4% YoY growth).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN), Volkswagen Group (XETRA: VOW / VOW3). Co-owned equally by both parent companies.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Rapidly built an international development team of 1,500+ employees within one year.
  - Successfully integrated Rivian’s zonal hardware into a Volkswagen test vehicle in just 12 weeks.
  - Winter testing of reference vehicles for Volkswagen, Audi, and Scout brands scheduled for Q1 2026.
  - First production vehicles using RV Tech’s architecture expected in 2027 (Volkswagen ID.EVERY1) and 2028 (Audi).
  - Rivian’s R2, R3, and R3X will also leverage the joint venture’s technology.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unique combination of expertise**: Rivian’s industry-leading software and electrical architecture married with Volkswagen Group’s massive manufacturing scale and global reach.
- **Speed of execution**: Demonstrated ability to produce a drivable demonstrator vehicle in 12 weeks.
- **Scalable platform**: The SDV architecture is designed to serve multiple brands, segments, and price points, potentially covering up to 30 million vehicles per year on Volkswagen’s future SSP platform.
- **Cost efficiency**: Shared development costs and reduced R&D expenditure for both parents, with a focus on lowering production costs for EVs.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Complete development and validation of the zonal SDV architecture through winter testing in early 2026; prepare for series production integration with Volkswagen Group brands (ID.EVERY1, Scout Traveler/Terra, Audi model) and Rivian’s R2 launch in 2026.
- **Direction for growth**: Expand the technology to additional automakers (several have expressed interest); deepen collaboration with Volkswagen Group brands on the SSP platform; scale the international team and open new development sites in Europe and North America.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: Fast-paced, collaborative environment at the intersection of two automotive and technology giants. Emphasis on innovation at scale, diverse collaboration, and global impact. Co-led by top technical leaders from both parent companies.
- **Remote/hybrid/office policy**: Teams are based in Palo Alto (HQ), with additional sites in Irvine (CA), Berlin (Germany), and offices in Canada, Sweden, and Serbia. Hybrid work likely, but specific policy not publicly detailed.
- **Notable perks or engineering culture**: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge SDV technology that will power millions of future EVs. Engineers get to shape the architecture from the ground up, with access to Rivian’s proven software stack and Volkswagen’s industrial resources. High growth trajectory (team more than doubled in its first year). Active job postings (126 as of mid-2026) across software engineering, systems, and leadership roles.

## Sources
1. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivian_and_Volkswagen_Group_Technologies)
2. [Volkswagen Group Press Release – Launch](https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/faster-leaner-more-efficient-rivian-and-volkswagen-group-announce-the-launch-of-their-joint-venture-18828)
3. [Volkswagen Group Press Release – One Year Anniversary](https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/one-year-after-its-founding-joint-venture-between-volkswagen-group-and-rivian-shows-strong-progress-19980)
4. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/rivian-and-vw-group-technologies)
5. [Company Website](https://rivianvw.tech/)

## Other roles at Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies

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