Staff Mechanical Design Engineer, Battery Analysis

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.

Summary Rivian is seeking a Sr. Staff Mechanical Design Engineer, Battery Analysis to join the Battery Analysis team within Energy Storage Systems. In this role, you will provide technical leadership for dynamic deformation and thermal-structural CAE of battery packs, modules, and related components. You will use explicit finite-element simulation, thermal-structural analysis, engineering judgment, and test correlation to inform design direction, evaluate crash, impact, durability, and environmental performance, and improve design validation. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in dynamic deformation (damage) and thermal-structural analysis developing analysis methods, material models, load profiles, and engineering recommendations. You will work across Product Design, Battery Systems, Test, Reliability, Manufacturing, and program teams to translate complex analysis into clear decisions and robust battery designs.

Lead dynamic-deformation and thermal-structural CAE for battery pack and module designs across development and validation phases. Design and optimize multi-material vertical stack-ups by balancing high-yield protective layers (such as high-strength steel or composite skid plates) to distribute concentrated impact loads with tailored, energy-absorbing crush buffers (like foam, elastomeric pads, or structural potting) to dissipate peak dynamic forces, control localized intrusion, and prevent critical mechanical stress transfer to internal battery components during severe top or ground strike events. Develop and improve explicit finite-element models for crash, impact, crush, drop, abuse and other transient load cases. Develop and improve FE models for thermal-structural response, including thermal expansion, coupled temperature-mechanical loading and durability-related assessments. Develop and execute Design of Experiments (DOE) to establish structural and thermal sensitivity maps, quantify parameter trade-offs, and define upper- and lower-bound "bookend" performance envelopes that guide early-stage design direction and accelerateprogram decision-making. Execute simulation studies that support design tradeoffs, risk reduction, design verification, and production readiness. Develop and maintain material cards, constitutive models, contact definitions, failure criteria, boundary conditions, mesh strategies, and solution controls appropriate to explicit and thermal-structural analysis. Generate and apply load profiles, including crash and impact pulses, vibration, shock, thermal expansion, durability, and manufacturing-related loads. Evaluate stresses, strains, deformation, energy absorption, intrusion, fatigue, interface loads, and failure risks in structures, potting, adhesives, busbars, current collector assemblies, and related components. Correlate CAE predictions with component, module, pack, and vehicle-level test data; investigate discrepancies and improve model fidelity. Define assumptions, sensitivities, acceptance criteria, and confidence levels for analysis results. Communicate technical findings through clear reports, data packages, reviews, and recommendations for engineering and program stakeholders. Partner with design engineers to identify design, material, manufacturability, and validation risks early enough to influence the product. Support root-cause investigations and corrective actions for structural, thermal-structural, durability, and manufacturing