Sr. Electronics Design and Characterization Engineer (InfoConn)
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies· Automotive software· Sep 23, 2026 · 1mo ago
Palo Alto, California
Hybrid
Full-time
Senior
$138K–$198K
7+ years exp
Job description
ABOUT US
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is a joint venture between two industry leaders with a clear vision for automotive’s next chapter. From operating systems to zonal controllers to cloud and connectivity solutions, we’re addressing the challenges of electric vehicles through technology that will set the standards for software-defined vehicles around the world.
The road to the future is uncharted. By combining our expertise across connectivity, AI, security and more, we’ll map a new way forward. Working together, we’ll create a future that’s more connected, more intelligent, more sustainable for everyone.
ROLE SUMMARY
The Electronics Test and Validation team owns the module-level validation testing for all RV Tech electronic control units (ECUs). It is our responsibility to make sure RV Tech electronics are designed and manufactured correctly. With this goal in mind, we develop scalable tools, processes, hardware, and software solutions deployed for characterization, validation, and manufacturing.
In this role, you will be a key individual contributor driving both design review and hardware characterization for vehicle electronics, with a particular focus on Infotainment & Connectivity (InfoConn) ECUs. You are not just assessing finished boards—you will actively review schematics alongside the EE design team early in the cycle, providing critical feedback to optimize the design and architect best-in-class verification methods. These ECUs are defined by SoC-class silicon, dense multi-rail power delivery, high-speed serial interfaces, and integrated wireless radios, so characterizing them means working across power integrity, signal integrity, RF performance, and thermal behavior on the same board. You'll work cross functionally to ensure that our electronics are designed to meet module-level requirements.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Develop detailed design verification and characterization test plans and test requirements for all phases of ECU programs, with input from reliability, design, RF, and firmware teams.
- Execute characterization testing plans according to project milestones.
- Own test coverage reports and analysis.
- Perform bench-level characterization at IC and PCBA levels, including multi-rail power sequencing and PMIC behavior, rail transient response and ripple, load step response, inrush, power-state transitions (sleep/suspend/wake), quiescent and standby current, brownout and power-interrupt thresholds, and thermal throttling behavior.
- Characterize high-speed interfaces at the ECU connector: camera and display serdes links (GMSL, FPD-Link), USB, PCIe, Automotive Ethernet (100BASE-T1/1000BASE-T1/multi-gig), and debug interfaces — including eye diagrams, jitter, BER, link margin, and link training behavior over voltage and temperature.
- Characterize the conducted RF performance of integrated radios — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth/BLE, cellular (LTE/5G), UWB, NFC, and GNSS — covering TX power and spectral quality, RX sensitivity, spurious emissions, and desense/coexistence between radios and against on-board digital and switching noise sources.
- Lead the power integrity and coexistence/desense characterization efforts for InfoConn ECUs, including correlation of measured behavior back to design intent and layout.
- Characterize protection and fault behavior: over-voltage and under-voltage, reverse polarity, load dump, interface short and disconnect conditions, storage and memory stress, and verification that the ECU reports the correct diagnostics and recovers as designed.
- Provide early feedback to design engineers regarding design decisions, testability, test point access, and instrumentation hooks needed for characterization.
- Support creation and present Design for Testability (DFT) reports for ECU designs.
- Follow characterization schedules and communicate status with upper management and cross-functional teams.
- Write automation scripts and instrumentation drivers to speed up characterization testing using Python, using AI coding agents to accelerate development while owning code quality, review, and validation.
- Leverage AI tooling to analyze characterization datasets at scale — surfacing parametric drift, part-to-part and temperature-dependent variation, outliers, and failure clustering across large sweep and log datasets — and turn those findings into concrete design or test recommendations, with sound judgment about verifying AI-generated conclusions before acting on them.
- Work with software engineers to flash, test, and troubleshoot firmware, including bootloaders, multi-image software loads, production test modes, and radio test modes.
- Participate in the cross-functional effort to root cause non-compliance test results during testing by leveraging data analysis, and drive design, RF, firmware, and test partners to closure on findings.
QUALIFICATIONS
- BS/MS or equivalent work experience in Electrical Engineering or related field.
- 7+ years of experience in electronics design, characterization and validation testing.
- Experience using lab instrumentation like high-bandwidth oscilloscopes and probes, VNA, BERT, power supplies, electronic loads, digital multimeters, DAQ, source measure units, current probes, and switch matrices.
- Hands-on experience with at least one of: spectrum analyzers, vector signal analyzers/generators, or wireless connectivity testers (LitePoint, R&S CMW/CMX, Anritsu, or equivalent).
- Strong understanding of Electrical Engineering fundamentals and circuit analysis
- Practical understanding of power and signal integrity fundamentals for high-compute hardware: multi-rail sequencing, PDN impedance and decoupling, transient response, impedance-controlled routing, jitter and eye margin, thermal resistance and throttling, and measurement uncertainty.
- Working understanding of RF fundamentals: path loss and cable/fixture calibration, VSWR and return loss, shielding and isolation, and conducted vs. OTA measurement tradeoffs.
- Experience in scripting and data analysis using Python.
- Demonstrated use of AI tools (Claude, Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor, or similar) to write and refactor test code and to analyze characterization data, with sound judgment about where AI-generated work needs human verification.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Hands-on characterization experience with infotainment/head units, cockpit compute, telematics units, or connectivity gateways.
- Experience with radio coexistence and desense debug, including noise source isolation, shielding and layout mitigations, and correlation to spectral measurements.
- Familiar with low-level firmware and C programming, including chipset radio test modes and vendor toolchains (NVIDIA, Qualcomm, TI, NXP, Renesas).
- Comfort working at the Linux/Android/QNX command line on the target — shell scripting, ADB, log capture, and interpreting kernel and boot logs.
- Experience with Altium Designer.
- Working knowledge of vehicle electrical systems and communication buses (Ethernet, SPI, CAN, LIN, etc.) and diagnostic protocols (UDS, XCP).
- Experience in developing automated test setups.
- Experience designing custom PCBAs, high-speed interposers, RF fixtures, or characterization breakout boards.
- Experience with storage endurance and health characterization (eMMC/UFS/NVMe wear, error rates, retention).
- Experience with thermal instrumentation — thermocouples, IR imaging, and thermal characterization of enclosed ECUs.
- Experience in Databricks or similar environment.
- Proficient with using electronics simulation applications such as LTspice, PSpice, SIMetrix
TOTAL REWARDS
We 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 rvtech.mybenefits.life.
External candidates can apply for this role through the Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies careers site (rivianvw.tech). If you are a current employee, please apply through our internal job board app.ashbyhq.com.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. 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. We are also committed to ensuring compliance with all applicable fair employment practice laws regarding citizenship and immigration status.
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies 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 candidateaccommodations@rivian.com.
CANDIDATE DATA PRIVACY
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies” 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 and Volkswagen Group Technologies 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) record keeping; (vi) ensuring network and information security and preventing fraud; and (vii) as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law.
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies 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 and Volkswagen Group Technologies affiliates; and (iii) Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies’ service providers, including providers of background checks, staffing services, and cloud services.
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies may transfer or store internationally your Candidate Personal Data, including to or in the United States, Canada, 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.
If you provide a mobile telephone number as part of your application or during the recruitment process, Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies may use that number to contact you via SMS text message for recruitment-related purposes, including scheduling, logistics, and status updates. Message and data rates may apply. You may opt out of SMS communications at any time by replying STOP to any text message you receive from us. Consent to receive SMS messages is not a condition of applying for or being considered for employment.
Please see our Candidate Data Privacy Notice (English) assets.ctfassets.net and Candidate Data Privacy Notice (Serbian) assets.ctfassets.net for more information.
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