<h1>SOC Architect</h1><p><strong>Location:</strong> 607 Hansen (Palo Alto California)</p><p><strong>Category:</strong> Mechanical & Electrical Engineering</p><p><strong>Employment Type:</strong> FULL_TIME</p><p><strong>Tags:</strong> Full Time, Rivian Automotive</p>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 Help shape the silicon behind the next generation of electric mobility. Rivian is building products and services that help people explore, experience, and move through the world more sustainably. As a SoC Architect, you will help define the compute platforms that enable Rivian’s next generation of electric vehicles and connected experiences. You will own key parts of automotive system-on-chip architecture, from early product definition through implementation and production. Working across hardware, software, systems, functional safety, security, and silicon engineering, you will translate vehicle requirements into scalable, power-efficient, production-ready compute solutions. This senior individual-contributor role is for an architect who can move comfortably between system-level strategy and detailed technical decisions. You will influence teams across the organization, bring clarity to complex programs, and help turn ambitious ideas into robust products. A strong candidate is energized by difficult, ambiguous problems and comfortable making high-quality decisions with incomplete information. They combine systems thinking with technical depth, communicate directly, seek diverse perspectives, and stay close enough to implementation to ensure that architecture delivers real product value. They are self-directed and proactive. They look for important problems to solve, take ownership from definition through execution, and help teams move forward when requirements or constraints are still evolving. Responsibilities Define and evolve SoC and compute-platform architectures for automotive applications, including compute, memory, interconnect, I/O, and system integration. Translate vehicle, platform, software, and customer requirements into clear architectural specifications and measurable design goals. Lead tradeoff decisions across performance, power, cost, area, thermal constraints, reliability, schedule, and product scalability. Define partitioning strategies across CPUs, NPUs, DSPs, accelerators, safety islands, and other heterogeneous compute resources. Define memory hierarchies, cache-coherency models, interconnect fabrics, bandwidth budgets, and data-movement strategies for demanding vehicle workloads. Partner with silicon design, verification, physical design, firmware, operating-system, embedded-software, validation, and systems teams to move architecture into implementation. Establish performance models, workload assumptions, benchmarks, and analysis methods to validate architectural decisions early. Incorporate functional safety, cybersecurity, reliability, diagnostics, and fault-containment requirements throughout the architecture. Review and guide third-party IP selection, integration, and qualification where appropriate. Identify technical risks, close architectural gaps, and communicate decisions and tradeoffs to technical and executive stakeholders. Contribute to architecture roadmaps and reusable platform strategies across multiple vehicle programs and product generations. Mentor engineers and improve architecture practices, documentation, technical reviews, and decision-making across the organization. Within your first year, you will have: Built trusted technical partnerships across silicon, software, systems, safety, security, and vehicle engineering. Defined or materially advanced a SoC architecture aligned with Rivian’s product and platform roadmap. Created a clear, data-backed framework for evaluating performance, power, memory, and scalability tradeoffs. Reduced architectural risk by identifying critical dependencies and validating high-impact assumptions early. Helped establish a repeatable architecture practice that enables faster, higher-confidence decisions across future programs. Built an effective working relationship with silicon partners through clear, timely, and technically strong communication. Qualifications Candidates should meet at least four or five of the qualifications below, along with a strong record of technical ownership and impact. Required Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a related technical field. 8+ years of experience in SoC, ASIC, CPU, accelerator, or complex embedded-system architecture and development. Demonstrated experience taking complex silicon or compute-platform architectures from concept through implementation and production. Strong understanding of computer architecture, memory systems, cache coherency, interconnects, virtualization, and hardware/software interfaces. Experience with heterogeneous compute architectures and workload-driven performance analysis. Ability to reason quantitatively about performance, power, bandwidth, latency, area, and system-level constraints. Experience across the silicon development lifecycle, including architecture, design, verification, bring-up, and post-silicon validation. Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical decisions to both specialist and cross-functional audiences. Experience with hardware-security architecture, secure boot, trusted execution, isolation, key management, and threat-informed design. Track record of influencing outcomes without relying on direct organizational authority. Preferred qualifications Experience designing SoCs or compute platforms for automotive, robotics, mobile, aerospace, industrial, or other safety- or reliability-critical products. Familiarity with automotive functional-safety concepts and standards such as ISO 26262. Experience with camera pipelines and image processing. Experience with radar-processing DSP architectures. Experience with ARM or RISC-V CPU architecture. Experience with high-speed I/O, such as PCIe, Ethernet, UFS, and MIPI interfaces. Experience with high-performance interconnect standards, chiplet-based systems, advanced packaging, or multi-die architectures. Experience building architectural simulators, performance models, emulation environments, or workload-analysis tools. Knowledge of low-power design techniques, thermal management, clock and power domains, and automotive-grade reliability requirements. Experience collaborating with semiconductor vendors, IP providers, foundries, or external engineering partners. Pay Disclosure The salary range for this role is $237,000 - $312,000 for Palo Alto, CA based applicants and $192,000 - $275,000 for Austin, TX 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. The successful candidate may be eligible for 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 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. 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 and Technology 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. How We Use AI in Our Hiring Process: To ensure transparency, we want candidates to know that Rivian uses iCIMS Talent Cloud Artificial Intelligence (TCAI) and AI-enabled tools to assist with screening, reviewing, organizing and highlighting profiles and applications that match the key requirements for each role. AI does not make hiring decisions: Qualified candidate applications are reviewed by a member of our team, and all decisions throughout the process are made by humans. We use AI to support efficiency and consistency, not to replace human judgment. We are committed to a fair, thoughtful, and equitable experience for every candidate. Participation in AI profile matching is entirely voluntary. If you prefer that your profile not be used in this process, you can opt out at any time. Opting out means your profile will be excluded from automated matching and will not be surfaced for additional roles through this system. Your current application remains active and will not be affected in any way. Please note that we are currently not accepting applications from third party application services.<h3>Responsibilities</h3>Define and evolve SoC and compute-platform architectures for automotive applications, including compute, memory, interconnect, I/O, and system integration. Translate vehicle, platform, software, and customer requirements into clear architectural specifications and measurable design goals. Lead tradeoff decisions across performance, power, cost, area, thermal constraints, reliability, schedule, and product scalability. Define partitioning strategies across CPUs, NPUs, DSPs, accelerators, safety islands, and other heterogeneous compute resources. Define memory hierarchies, cache-coherency models, interconnect fabrics, bandwidth budgets, and data-movement strategies for demanding vehicle workloads. Partner with silicon design, verification, physical design, firmware, operating-system, embedded-software, validation, and systems teams to move architecture into implementation. Establish performance models, workload assumptions, benchmarks, and analysis methods to validate architectural decisions early. Incorporate functional safety, cybersecurity, reliability, diagnostics, and fault-containment requirements throughout the architecture. Review and guide third-party IP selection, integration, and qualification where appropriate. Identify technical risks, close architectural gaps, and communicate decisions and tradeoffs to technical and executive stakeholders. Contribute to architecture roadmaps and reusable platform strategies across multiple vehicle programs and product generations. Mentor engineers and improve architecture practices, documentation, technical reviews, and decision-making across the organization. Within your first year, you will have: Built trusted technical partnerships across silicon, software, systems, safety, security, and vehicle engineering. Defined or materially advanced a SoC architecture aligned with Rivian’s product and platform roadmap. Created a clear, data-backed framework for evaluating performance, power, memory, and scalability tradeoffs. Reduced architectural risk by identifying critical dependencies and validating high-impact assumptions early. Helped establish a repeatable architecture practice that enables faster, higher-confidence decisions across future programs. Built an effective working relationship with silicon partners through clear, timely, and technically strong communication.<h3>Qualifications</h3>Candidates should meet at least four or five of the qualifications below, along with a strong record of technical ownership and impact. Required Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a related technical field. 8+ years of experience in SoC, ASIC, CPU, accelerator, or complex embedded-system architecture and development. Demonstrated experience taking complex silicon or compute-platform architectures from concept through implementation and production. Strong understanding of computer architecture, memory systems, cache coherency, interconnects, virtualization, and hardware/software interfaces. Experience with heterogeneous compute architectures and workload-driven performance analysis. Ability to reason quantitatively about performance, power, bandwidth, latency, area, and system-level constraints. Experience across the silicon development lifecycle, including architecture, design, verification, bring-up, and post-silicon validation. Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical decisions to both specialist and cross-functional audiences. Experience with hardware-security architecture, secure boot, trusted execution, isolation, key management, and threat-informed design. Track record of influencing outcomes without relying on direct organizational authority. Preferred qualifications Experience designing SoCs or compute platforms for automotive, robotics, mobile, aerospace, industrial, or other safety- or reliability-critical products. Familiarity with automotive functional-safety concepts and standards such as ISO 26262. Experience with camera pipelines and image processing. Experience with radar-processing DSP architectures. Experience with ARM or RISC-V CPU architecture. Experience with high-speed I/O, such as PCIe, Ethernet, UFS, and MIPI interfaces. Experience with high-performance interconnect standards, chiplet-based systems, advanced packaging, or multi-die architectures. Experience building architectural simulators, performance models, emulation environments, or workload-analysis tools. Knowledge of low-power design techniques, thermal management, clock and power domains, and automotive-grade reliability requirements. Experience collaborating with semiconductor vendors, IP providers, foundries, or external engineering partners.