Sr. Failure Analysis Materials Engineering TPM

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.

The Sr. Technical Program Manager (TPM), Failure Analysis & Materials Engineering (FAME) plays a critical role in driving Rivian's technology & strategy to support Failure Analysis and Materials Engineering within Rivian's Engineering Quality department. You will partner with cross-functional teams across Product Development, Manufacturing & Process Engineering, Procurement & Supply Chain, and Supplier Quality. Throughout the product lifecycle you will craft cross functional solutions that directly support our production schedule, improve efficiency, improve assembly quality, and enable research and development of advanced component offerings.

This role is located at our Tustin, CA facility and reports into the Director, Failure Analysis & Materials Engineering (FAME).

• Key support functions:
  • Fasteners & Joining
  • Materials - Metals
  • Materials - Non Metals
  • Corrosion Engineering
  • Failure Analysis
• Key Cross Functional Partners:
  • Program & Vehicle Line teams
  • Purchasing
  • Supplier Quality
  • Product Development (Vehicle Hardware Engineering, Propulsion, Energy Storage, Charging, etc)
  • Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)/IT and data infrastructure
• Program Integration Management - The TPM will take charge of ensuring FAME team activities are aligned with rapidly changing program timelines and deliverables. The TPM will work closely with the Program & Vehicle Line teams, and compile weekly updates of current program status and risks. The TPM will maintain an accurate timetable for all FAME team deliverables.
• Accountability - The TPM will drive FAME deliverables by holding FAME team members and our cross functional partners accountable for providing timely support to meet deadlines.
• Technical Liaison - Act as a bridge between technical teams and business stakeholders, ensuring clear communication and alignment of program objectives. Provide regular updates to leadership on program status, risks, and mitigation strategies.
• Engineering Critical Path - ensuring all FAME deliverables have timelines to manage critical path, adjust to accommodate emergent issues, and that the cadence of is being driven based on an aligned timeline with impacted stakeholders.
• Risk Management - working with management to identify risks to programs and production, mitigation plans, and escalation before risks are realized. Communicating with vehicle-level and Program teams and their TPMs, and ensuring alignment on the route forward. This is constantly evolving throughout the entire program, and dependent on the risks at hand.
• Scope Management - understanding and communicating Vehicle Line and Program goals to the FAME team, and decomposing them into a technical roadmap.
• Change Management - align on change management content and necessity then drive execution to completion.
• Targets Management - iterate with partner teams and vehicle lines on fastener and material budget targets, BOM cost, mass, unique part count, and then drive FAME efforts to help those teams achieve targets, help resolve issues, elevate roadblocks, and spot icebergs that would prevent targets from being achieved.
• Data Integrity - contribute to the integration of material and joint test and simulation data into a robust data warehouse driving efficient data centric engineering decision making.
• Supply Chain and Procurement - work side by side with the Supply Chain and Fasteners Procurement teams to keep projects on time in tandem with the needs of purchasing efforts. Key areas of note include re-sourcing initiatives, new program pilot builds, and product launches.
• Bill of Materials Accuracy - support Standard Components & Materials on new part number…