Studio Manager - Perceived Quality & Craftsmanship

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

The Manager of Perceived Quality owns the customer-facing execution of vehicle look, feel, and sound, ensuring the end-to-end experience aligns with Rivian’s brand promise from initial design concept through full-scale production.

Acting as the ultimate voice of the customer, this role translates subjective impressions into quantifiable engineering specifications and leads a high-performing team to maintain rigorous quality standards across all vehicle programs.

The position collaborates extensively with Design, Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing, Supplier Quality, Purchasing, and Operations, providing cross-functional alignment and regular reporting to executive leadership

This role is on-site in Irvine, CA. Not open to remote candidates.

Responsibilities

Standards and targets:

• Set Perceived Quality targets for crafted quality and material quality, aligned to the Perceived Quality attribute requirements and the brand.
• Benchmark competitor vehicles to find best-in-class examples and solutions, and use them to set Bill of Design criteria.
• Review Bill of Design and design sketch documents to build craftsmanship in from the start.
• Publish a cosmetic quality standard for each vehicle program, covering areas such as seating, steering wheel, door trim, instrument panel and console.
• Own a master deck of specifications for every visible part interface, and give targets to Studio, Engineering and suppliers.

Program delivery:

• Lead interface maturation and deliver proven interface characteristics into program master sections.
• Run virtual cosmetic risk assessments in CAD, with dimensional variation analysis, to predict issues before hardware exists.
• Work with Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing to confirm that designs are feasible to build at quality.
• Mature components and assemblies with Component Engineers, suppliers, Design, Company Quality and Purchasing.
• Turn requirements into a detailed build standard and hand it to production teams.

Reviews and issue closure:

• Lead craftsmanship review meetings by vehicle zone, and escalate issues that cannot be closed in the room.
• Lead issue discovery and resolution on prototype builds, and support launch milestones.
• Track performance against targets with metrics and data visualization, and report status and risk to leadership.

Leadership:

• Hire, coach and develop a team of Perceived Quality engineers, and plan resources and Rivian Internalbudget.
• Act as the subject matter expert and the escalation route for Perceived Quality across

programs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a technical discipline.
• 5-7+ years in Craftsmanship or Perceived Quality at a global automaker
• 3+ years experience leading people or cross-functional teams.
• Deep knowledge of vehicle appearance and feel: fit and finish, gap and flush, surface quality, paint, interior and exterior materials, haptics and closing quality.
• Working knowledge of tolerance stack analysis and GD&T, and proficiency in CATIA or similar CAD.
• Strong statistical awareness and a clear view of what high quality looks like.
• Strong understanding of how materials affect craftsmanship and perceived quality.
• Experience in a manufacturing or production environment.

Preferred

• Master's degree.
• Experience writing cosmetic or craftsmanship standards and running competitive
  benchmarking.
• Experience with statistical qualification of equipment and gauges.
• Experience with vehicle launches, ideally at an EV maker or a fast-growing company.

Pay Disclosure

The salary range for this role is $137,800 - $182,520 for California 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 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. 

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.