Role SummaryThe Build & Release team is the backbone of our software development lifecycle. We don't just "run operations" - we engineer the mechanisms that create software for our vehicles. Our mission is to provide a seamless, high-performance developer experience where pipelines are invisible, and deployments are stable. As a Staff Engineer, you will set the technical direction for build and release engineering across the org, solving our hardest infrastructure problems and multiplying the effectiveness of the teams around you.
Responsibilities- Define the technical strategy and architecture for scalable, fault-tolerant CI/CD pipelines spanning multiple teams and product lines.
- Own and evolve the technical vision for build system integrity, setting standards that other engineers and teams are held to.
- Lead the evaluation, onboarding, and architectural integration of new components, software stacks, and build technologies org-wide.
- Drive build-vs-buy decisions on third-party and open-source software, setting integration patterns others follow.
- Identify systemic gaps in developer productivity and lead the design and delivery of tools that improve the experience for the entire engineering org.
- Act as a technical authority across development, QA, and release management, resolving cross-team design tradeoffs and influencing how other teams plan releases.
- Partner directly with senior cross-functional stakeholders to translate ambiguous business needs into engineering roadmaps, often defining the requirements themselves.
- Set the standard for production system reliability - establishing monitoring, incident response, and performance practices that other engineers adopt.
- Architect containerization and orchestration strategy (Docker, Kubernetes) at a platform level, making build-vs-reuse decisions that affect multiple teams.
- Serve as a key technical bridge between software development and vehicle deployment, mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across the build automation domain.
- Mentor senior and mid-level engineers, and contribute to hiring, technical interviewing, and team-level technical decision-making..
Qualifications- Experience: 8+ years of industry experience as a DevOps/Build & Release Engineer or similar, including demonstrated technical leadership on multi-team or org-wide initiatives.
- Education: BS or MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
- Technical Proficiency: Deep expertise designing and scaling CI/CD systems (GitLab-CI, GitHub Actions, CircleCI) and Infrastructure-as-Code tooling (Terraform, Helm, Ansible) at an architectural level.
- Software Build Systems: 3+ years of hands-on experience with build tools like Bazel, GNU Make, CMake, Gradle, including experience architecting or migrating build systems at scale.
- Coding Skills: Advanced scripting and automation expertise in Python, Go, Bash, or similar, with a track record of building tools/platforms used by many engineers.
- Cloud/Infra: Deep, hands-on expertise with Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure), including platform-level design decisions.
- Observability: Expert-level experience designing observability strategy using tools like DataDog, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, or ELK Stack.
- Mindset: You treat "Operations" as a first-class engineering discipline and have a track record of driving org-wide improvements to Developer Experience.
- Influence: Proven ability to lead without direct authority - setting technical direction, influencing roadmaps, and raising the bar for engineering practices across teams.
- Growth: Deep curiosity about the unique challenges of delivering software to hardware/vehicles, with the judgment to make tradeoffs in ambiguous, high-stakes environments.
- Communication: Excellent communication skills, with experience presenting technical strategy to senior stakeholders and building consensus across engineering orgs.
Total RewardsFull-time positions include base salary, eligibility for an annual performance bonus, and eligibility for equity.
In addition to base salary, Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies offers benefits tailored to the local market. For more information on the benefits available for full-time employees, check out our Global Benefits Site.
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
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