Role SummaryAs a Staff Android Engineer you will be the technical leader for the Android platform across our products. You will set its architecture, own its high-risk surfaces (concurrency, persistence, performance, connectivity and build pipelines), and review the designs and code that feature engineers land on top of it. This is not a feature role: your product is the platform.
The Mobile Platform team owns the iOS and Android foundation beneath three products: the Rivian mobile app, the RVT Mobile SDK used by partner brands, and the Mobile Reference App. Our customers are the feature teams who build on that foundation, and we measure success by how fast and safely they ship. We achieve that through clean architecture, rules enforced in CI rather than in reviewers' heads, strong observability, and intentional use of AI-assisted development.
Responsibilities- Own the Android platform architecture across the Rivian app, the Mobile SDK and the Reference App, and drive it forward (Jetpack Compose, modern navigation, DI and modularization).
- Lead the design and delivery of platform capabilities such as connectivity, background execution, Digital Key, auth and vehicle state, often across team and site boundaries.
- Act as the Android platform expert in tech design reviews and gated code reviews for concurrency, persistence and performance, within agreed turnaround targets.
- Turn review criteria into automated checks: lint rules, architecture tests, CI gates and templates.
- Own app health: startup time, app size, crash-free rate, ANRs, jank and background battery impact, with budgets that feature teams can see and stay inside.
- Own Android build, CI/CD, signing, release infrastructure and observability, and keep the OS, toolchain and libraries current.
- Write and maintain in-repo platform documentation (architecture decisions, guidebooks, onboarding) that both engineers and AI agents can use.
- Lead incident triage and fixes for platform-layer defects, and take part in the mobile on-call rotation.
- Mentor engineers on the platform and feature teams, and influence Android practice across the organization through the architecture forum.
Qualifications- 8+ years of professional experience in mobile app development, with a significant portion on Android.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent.
- Proven record of owning the architecture of a large, multi-module Android codebase used by several teams.
- Deep expertise in Kotlin, Coroutines and Flow, recognized as a clear expert by peers.
- Strong knowledge of Android internals: process and app lifecycle, background execution limits (WorkManager, foreground services), threading and memory.
- Experience with Jetpack Compose and modern Android architecture (DI, modularization, Room or similar persistence).
- Expert-level experience with Gradle, build pipelines, CI/CD, signing and dependency management for Android.
- Track record of measurably improving app performance and stability: startup, size, crashes, ANRs, jank.
- Experience with Crashlytics, Datadog or similar monitoring tools.
- Experience designing client integrations with backend technologies such as gRPC or GraphQL.
- Experience setting technical direction through design reviews, code reviews and written standards.
- Comfortable using AI coding agents in daily work, and in making codebases easy for them to work in.
- Excellent command of English, written and spoken.
Nice to have- Bluetooth Low Energy or UWB experience, especially long-running background connections.
- Digital Key, NFC, secure element or Android Keystore/StrongBox experience.
- Experience building or maintaining an SDK consumed by external apps (public API design, versioning, binary size).
- Experience with Play Integrity or other device attestation.
- Automotive or connected-device software experience.
Total RewardsWe build the exceptional - and we believe the people doing that work should be rewarded accordingly. In addition to a competitive base salary, full-time positions may be is eligible to participate in our annual company performance bonus program.
Payments are discretionary and not guaranteed; actual amounts depend on company results and the terms of the plan in effect, and require active employment at the time of payout. This role is also eligible for equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), subject to board approval and the terms of our equity incentive plans, including applicable vesting requirements.
In addition to our compensation programs, we invest in our people with a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the health, wellbeing, and financial future for full-time employees - including health coverage, retirement savings, time off, and family planning programs. Offerings vary by country.
Learn more about our global benefit programs.External candidates can apply for this role through the Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies careers site (
https://rivianvw.tech/#careers). If you are a current employee, please apply through our
internal job board. 
