CAE Engineer - Chassis & Body

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.

In this position, you will use CAE tools to drive solutions for Body Structure & Chassis system components. You will ensure these components meet all government and Rivian internal durability requirements. Collaboration with cross‑functional teams will be essential to find optimal solutions that satisfy all Body Structure & Chassis system requirements and company goals.

This role is based in Irvine, CA, and requires an on‑site presence in a hybrid work environment. Flexibility to work extended hours, including evenings, nights, and weekends, as well as to travel, is required to meet company goals.

• Lead subsystem level Durability CAE analysis of Body Structures & Chassis subsystems of Rivian's vehicles including but not limited to:
  Linear, Non-Linear, Static, Dynamic, NVH, Fatigue, and abuse load analysis, while also plan & execute optimal resource utilization.
• Develop and execute analysis plans to analyze and optimize various Body Structure subsystems, including structural components (top hats, underbody, dash structure, front end) and accessory mounts (including trailer hitch). Similarly, create and execute analysis plans for Chassis subsystems, including structural components (subframes, knuckles, lower control arms, links) and suspension systems. Utilize CAE tools to ensure subsystem‑level performance meets durability and other attribute targets.
• Lead multiple concurrent CAE‑intensive projects, each involving small cross‑functional teams of 3‑5 people. These teams may include Design Engineers, Material Engineers, Supplier Engineers (onsite & offshore), and Attributes team members. Ensure the timely delivery of high‑quality durability simulation results and their effective utilization to drive design development in a fast paced program cycle.
• Capture the welds, connections, hard point definitions, and boundary conditions according to the body structure & chassis system simulation standards and requirements. Employ appropriate model build requirements for stiffness, linear strength, non‑linear strength, and fatigue analysis of complex chassis systems with elaborate welds, joints and combination of thin & thick structural components.
• Predict and improve the local and global stiffness of body structure systems, knuckles, links, and other subsystems and interactively work with Multi Body Dynamic (MBD) analysis team.
• Extract relevant duty cycle and abuse loads from the Vehicle Dynamics Loads. Analyze these loads to determine envelope stresses and identify critical load conditions for each chassis subsystem. Conduct detailed nonlinear analysis of these critical load cases. Predict potential bolt slip and preload loss.
• Utilize advanced fatigue prediction techniques in nCode for seam weld fatigue & parent metal fatigue calculations with appropriate load histories extracted from Road Load Data (RLD) inputs from Dynamics team and CARLOS test standards.
• Explain the durability failure modes through animations / time slices and devise countermeasures to address those while zooming out to consider other system requirements such as safety, NVH, DFM, GD&T, & DFMEA etc.
• Demonstrate understanding of materials basics and experience in representing them in domain specific CAE format, benchmarking similar materials, and showing material level CAE correlation.
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of various weld representation and analysis techniques. Explain how these techniques capture the influence of different manufacturing processes on weld behavior, strength, and heat‑affected zone.
• Explain analysis assumptions and the basis of countermeasures using first principles. Mentor…