Senior Staff Radar Antenna Design Engineer

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

Rivian is seeking a Senior Staff Radar Antenna Design Engineer to lead the architecture, design, and production maturation of advanced waveguide antennas for high-performance imaging radar systems. This role is for a technical leader with deep expertise in electromagnetic design who can translate demanding radar performance requirements into robust, manufacturable antenna solutions.

You will own antenna design from concept through vehicle integration, working across radar architecture, RF hardware, mechanical engineering, signal processing, manufacturing, validation, and suppliers. The ideal candidate combines first-principles electromagnetic insight with strong judgment in system tradeoffs, design-for-manufacturing, and execution of complex hardware programs.

Responsibilities

• Define antenna architectures and performance targets for next-generation imaging radar systems, including field of view, angular resolution, gain, sidelobe levels, polarization, efficiency, bandwidth, scan performance, and calibration stability.
• Lead the design and optimization of advanced waveguide antenna technologies, including slotted-waveguide arrays, waveguide feeds, corporate and series-fed networks, apertures, transitions, radomes, and RF packaging interfaces.
• Develop electromagnetic models and design methods for complex antenna structures, accounting for mutual coupling, fabrication tolerances, thermal effects, dielectric loading, surface roughness, leakage, losses, and integration constraints.
• Drive antenna concepts through electromagnetic simulation, prototype design, fabrication, near-field and far-field measurement, correlation, root-cause analysis, and design iteration.
• Establish antenna-level budgets, verification plans, acceptance criteria, and correlation methodologies aligned with radar system performance.
• Partner with radar architects and RF engineers to optimize antenna, transceiver, packaging, calibration, and signal-processing tradeoffs at the system level.
• Lead integration of the antenna into automotive packaging, including radome effects, bumper and fascia materials, mounting constraints, environmental sealing, thermal management, and vehicle-level electromagnetic compatibility.
• Own technical decisions and communicate tradeoffs clearly to senior leadership, cross-functional teams, and external suppliers.
• Mentor antenna engineers and raise the technical bar through design reviews, reusable analysis methods, modeling standards, and measurement best practices.
• Guide supplier technical development, including design reviews, process capability, tolerance analysis, test correlation, and corrective actions.
• Support design release, validation, production launch, and field issue resolution for radar antenna hardware.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related technical field, with significant industry experience; advanced degree preferred.
• Typically 12+ years of relevant engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated technical depth and impact.
• Extensive professional experience designing antennas or microwave components for demanding radar, sensing, communications, aerospace, or automotive applications.
• Deep expertise in waveguide antenna design, including aperture synthesis, slotted-waveguide arrays, feed networks, transitions, mode control, impedance matching, and broadband performance optimization.
• Demonstrated ownership of antenna products from electromagnetic concept through prototype, measurement correlation, design verification, and production release.
• Strong command of electromagnetic theory, antenna array theory, microwave engineering, scattering parameters, polarization, propagation, and RF measurement techniques.
• Expert-level experience with 3D full-wave electromagnetic simulation and optimization tools, such as Ansys HFSS, CST Studio Suite, or equivalent.
• Hands-on experience with antenna measurement systems, including near-field or far-field ranges, over-the-air testing, calibration, pattern characterization, and uncertainty analysis.
• Experience performing tolerance analysis and designing antennas for manufacturability, repeatability, environmental robustness, and high-volume production.
• Ability to interpret complex measurement data, identify root causes, and make technically rigorous design decisions under schedule and cost constraints.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence across disciplines without direct authority.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with imaging radar architectures, electronically scanned arrays, MIMO radar, high-channel-count systems, or high-resolution automotive radar.
• Experience designing antennas for millimeter-wave frequencies, particularly 76–81 GHz or adjacent bands.
• Experience with waveguide manufacturing processes such as precision machining, metal injection molding, die casting, additive manufacturing, plating, metallization, or precision assembly.
• Knowledge of automotive radar regulatory, EMC, environmental, and reliability requirements.
• Experience with radome and fascia electromagnetic characterization, material stack-up modeling, and vehicle-level integration.
• Familiarity with automated electromagnetic optimization, scripting, data reduction, and engineering workflows using Python, MATLAB, or similar tools.
• Experience developing correlation fixtures, calibration methods, and production end-of-line antenna test strategies.
• Track record of technical leadership on complex hardware programs and successful mentoring of senior engineers.
• Published technical work, patents, conference contributions, or demonstrated thought leadership in antenna or microwave engineering.

Pay Disclosure

Pay Range: The salary range for this role is $237,000 - $296,000 annually for Bay Area 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.

Benefits: 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.

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.

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 [email protected].

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.

Interview Integrity & AI Policy 

Our interview process is designed to evaluate your personal technical foundation, real-time problem-solving logic, and structured capabilities. Therefore, the use of assistive generative AI tools to formulate or deliver your solutions during live interview sessions is not permitted. We care most about how you think — how you make sense of unclear requirements, weigh trade-offs, and explain why you chose one approach over another. We value your unique human perspective, your authenticity, and the journey it takes to reach a solution.

Please note that we are currently not accepting applications from third party application services.