Early Career - Durability Modeling & Simulation Engineer

Role Summary

No Visa SponsorshipWe are seeking a highly motivated Durability Engineer to join our Durability Analytics and Targets team. In this early-career position, you will work alongside and learn from senior team members to analyze real-world, virtual, and test data. You will develop first- principles physics, multibody dynamics, and data-science models to predict loads, vibration, and fatigue damage for various suspension, body, and propulsion components.

You will help us answer a critical question

How do we design our vehicles to remain robust across diverse customer use cases over their entire lifecycle?

Responsibilities

Apply your fundamentals in vehicle physics to

• Assist in and develop multibody dynamics models to calculate loads on various suspension, body, and propulsion components during vehicle operation.
• Estimate fatigue damage and derive component fatigue block cycles.
• Develop comprehensive vibration and shock requirements.

Learn and employ methods in the fast-growing area of data-science to:

• Model real-world vehicle usage and establish accurate durability targets.
• Develop reduced-order models to efficiently calculate vehicle loads and fatigue damage.
• Analyze wheel-force transducer data, accelerometer data to identify root cause of failures, develop accelerated duty cycles, and perform sensitivity studies

Leverage AI and coding skills to

• Automate processes such as component block cycle development and accelerated duty cycle development.
• Standardize Durability team’s inputs, outputs, and communication with cross-functional teams

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical engineering or Aerospace engineering.
• A solid grasp of vehicle physics, mechanics of materials, fatigue, and modeling/simulation.
• Practical exposure through project-based work to modeling and simulation in MATLAB or Python. Exposure to MSC Adams, Simpack, nCode, or CarMaker is a plus.
• An analytical mindset coupled with clear and effective communication skills.
• Passion for Rivian’s mission and commitment to fostering an inclusive, respectful, and collaborative workplace.
• Familiarity to time-series analysis, clustering algorithms, and deep learning is advantageous.

Pay Disclosure

The salary range for this role is USD 96,700-120,900 for Irvine 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 Plan 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. You can apply for this role through careers.rivian.com (or through internal-careers-rivian.icims.com if you are a current employee). This job is not expected to be closed any sooner than 10/25/2026.