{"id":2252345,"url":"https://alion.io/job/rivian-staff-mechanical-design-engineer-battery-analysis","title":"Staff Mechanical Design Engineer, Battery Analysis","company":{"id":37817,"name":"Rivian","domain":"rivian.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/rivian","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Jibe","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":87,"open_postings":97,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.505,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":54,"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"staff","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Tustin, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":137800,"max":172200,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":172200},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"MATLAB","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-02T23:07:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-11","last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T03:14:23Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":47,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":47},"description":"About RivianRivian 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.\nAs 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.\nRole Summary\nRivian is seeking a Staff Mechanical Design Engineer, Battery Analysis to join the Battery Analysis team within Energy Storage Systems. In this role, you will provide technical leadership for dynamic deformation and thermal-structural CAE of battery packs, modules, and related components.\nYou will use explicit finite-element simulation, thermal-structural analysis, engineering judgment, and test correlation to inform design direction, evaluate crash, impact, durability, and environmental performance, and improve design validation. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in dynamic deformation (damage) and thermal-structural analysis developing analysis methods, material models, load profiles, and engineering recommendations. You will work across Product Design, Battery Systems, Test, Reliability, Manufacturing, and program teams to translate complex analysis into clear decisions and robust battery designs.\nResponsibilities\nLead dynamic-deformation and thermal-structural CAE for battery pack and module designs across development and validation phases.\nDesign and optimize multi-material vertical stack-ups by balancing high-yield protective layers (such as high-strength steel or composite skid plates) to distribute concentrated impact loads with tailored, energy-absorbing crush buffers (like foam, elastomeric pads, or structural potting) to dissipate peak dynamic forces, control localized intrusion, and prevent critical mechanical stress transfer to internal battery components during severe top or ground strike events.\nDevelop and improve explicit finite-element models for crash, impact, crush, drop, abuse and other transient load cases.\nDevelop and improve FE models for thermal-structural response, including thermal expansion, coupled temperature-mechanical loading and durability-related assessments.\nDevelop and execute Design of Experiments (DOE) to establish structural and thermal sensitivity maps, quantify parameter trade-offs, and define upper- and lower-bound \"bookend\" performance envelopes that guide early-stage design direction and accelerateprogram decision-making.\nExecute simulation studies that support design tradeoffs, risk reduction, design verification, and production readiness.\nDevelop and maintain material cards, constitutive models, contact definitions, failure criteria, boundary conditions, mesh strategies, and solution controls appropriate to explicit and thermal-structural analysis.\nGenerate and apply load profiles, including crash and impact pulses, vibration, shock, thermal expansion, durability, and manufacturing-related loads.\nEvaluate stresses, strains, deformation, energy absorption, intrusion, fatigue, interface loads, and failure risks in structures, potting, adhesives, busbars, current collector assemblies, and related components.\nCorrelate CAE predictions with component, module, pack, and vehicle-level test data; investigate discrepancies and improve model fidelity.\nDefine assumptions, sensitivities, acceptance criteria, and confidence levels for analysis results.\nCommunicate technical findings through clear reports, data packages, reviews, and recommendations for engineering and program stakeholders.\nPartner with design engineers to identify design, material, manufacturability, and validation risks early enough to influence the product.\nSupport root-cause investigations and corrective actions for structural, thermal-structural, durability, and manufacturing concerns.\nEstablish and maintain reusable analysis workflows, templates, material databases, profile-generation methods, and documentation.\nMentor engineers and contribute to technical standards, best practices, and the long-term capability of the Battery Analysis team.\nQualifications\nBachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Civil or Structural Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related field.\nSignificant professional experience applying CAE to mechanical, structural, thermal-structural, or durability problems in complex products.\nStrong understanding of mechanics of materials, finite-element methods, nonlinear behavior, thermal expansion, contact, material behavior, energy absorption, and failure modes.\nDemonstrated hands-on experience using LS-DYNA (preferred) for explicit dynamic analysis, including model setup, contact, material and failure definitions, timestep or mass-scaling considerations, solver controls, and post-processing.\nDemonstrated hands-on experience using OptiStruct (preferred) for thermal-structural and structural analysis, including thermal loading, material and boundary-condition definition, modal or static response, and interpretation of results.\nThermal-to-Structural Data Mapping & Mesh Interpolation: Hands-on experience mapping 3D non-uniform temperature fields from thermal solver grids (e.g., Fluent, STAR-CCM+) onto non-conformal structural FEA meshes (e.g., OptiStruct or LS-DYNA) using spatial spatial-interpolation methods\nExperience modeling for assemblies containing metals, polymers, adhesives, foams,potting materials, or similar interfaces.\nExperience developing or applying crash, impact, crush, drop, vibration, shock, durability, thermal, or manufacturing load cases.\nExperience correlating simulation results with physical test data and using the findings to improve models or design decisions.\nWorking knowledge of engineering drawings, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, material properties, and design-for-manufacturing considerations.\nAbility to communicate complex technical topics clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.\nAbility to execute multiple projects, make evidence-based recommendations, and deliver against program timing.\nDemonstrated ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams and provide technical direction without relying on formal authority.\nPreferred Qualifications:\nMaster’s or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Structural Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related field.\nExperience with battery packs, modules, cells, current collector assemblies, busbars, potting, adhesives, thermal management, or high-voltage energy-storage systems.\nExperience with thermal-mechanical or coupled multiphysics analysis.\nExperience with fatigue, random vibration, shock response, response-spectrum methods, PSD development, or damage calculations.\nExperience with crash, impact, large-deformation, vehicle bottom structure protection like skid plates and dynamic intrusion of composite materials.\nExperience creating automated workflows, post-processing tools, or engineering data pipelines.\nExperience executing multi-disciplinary design optimization (MDO) using tools like LS-OPT, HEEDS, or OptiStruct to concurrently balance structural mass, dynamic energy absorption, and thermal deformation across complex, multi-material battery assemblies.\nExperience developing material models or material cards from coupon, component, or supplier data.\nAdvanced experience with LS-DYNA and OptiStruct; proficiency with HyperMesh, Ansa or comparable pre- and post-processing tools.\nExperience with Abaqus, ANSYS, NCode, MATLAB, Python, or comparable CAE and data-analysis tools.\nExperience leading technical reviews, mentoring engineers, and establishing analysis standards across programs.\nPay Disclosure\nThe salary range for this role is USD 137,800 - 172,200 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.\nThe successful candidate may be eligible for annual performance bonus and equity awards.\nWe 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.\nYou 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 September 20, 2026\nEqual Opportunity\nRivian 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.\nRivian 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 .\nCandidate Data Privacy and Technology\nRivian 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.\nRivian 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.\nRivian 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 th...","description_format":"text","description_chars":13264,"description_truncated":true,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Automotive Manufacturing","Automotive Components"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-11T02:41:29Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":34,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.574,"p_room":0.6,"age_days":47,"expected_fill_days":54,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","velocity","win:late","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":172200,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/rivian-staff-mechanical-design-engineer-battery-analysis","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/rivian-staff-mechanical-design-engineer-battery-analysis.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-20T06:06:46Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":6622,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":37817},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=37817"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Frivian-staff-mechanical-design-engineer-battery-analysis"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Frivian-staff-mechanical-design-engineer-battery-analysis"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Frivian-staff-mechanical-design-engineer-battery-analysis"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/rivian-staff-mechanical-design-engineer-battery-analysis\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Frivian-staff-mechanical-design-engineer-battery-analysis"}]}