The Staff Software Engineer, ML Data Infrastructure at Rivian will be responsible for managing how autonomy data is described, indexed, and accessed within the Autonomy organization. This role is part of the Platform Services team in the AI Platform organization, focusing on unifying data access across various systems. The engineer will work closely with multiple teams, including AI Platform, Perception, and Planning, to ensure efficient data handling for a fleet of over 100,000 vehicles. The main focus will be on designing a unified metadata and query layer to streamline data access for machine learning and analytics teams.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in software engineering, with a strong focus on data infrastructure or data platform work.
• 5+ years owning a large-scale data platform for ML or analytics workloads, including its storage and access model.
• 5+ years with columnar and analytical stores such as ClickHouse, Pinot, Druid, BigQuery, Databricks, or Snowflake.
• 3+ years designing storage and query layers for large volumes of heterogeneous metrics.
• 3+ years with document or NoSQL stores, including schema design and indexing strategy.
• 3+ years with modern data and table formats such as Parquet, Arrow, Iceberg, or Delta.
• 3+ years building batch and streaming pipelines at scale.
• 3+ years hands-on with Python, plus production experience in Go, C++, or Rust.
• 3+ years with queueing and event-driven systems in a production ingest path.
• 2+ years with production monitoring and alerting for data pipelines.
• 2+ years migrating a production data platform between storage or format architectures.

• Own the unified data layer for autonomy, providing a single interface for querying data.
• Design the architecture for the data lake and the APIs that expose it.
• Own the data access and format strategy, including the evolution of canonical schemas.
• Design and build batch and streaming pipelines for evaluation data.
• Build the indexing and discovery layer for fast semantic and metadata search.
• Improve data mining tools that apply ML techniques for data discovery.
• Build well-documented tools and APIs for engineers outside data infrastructure.
• Ensure data correctness through schema validation and monitoring.
• Build continuous testing and monitoring for the platform.
• Work with the security and privacy team on data retention and access control.
• Set data engineering standards across Autonomy and mentor engineers.

• Employees at Rivian are often offered comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) with company match, ESPP and potential RSU grants, performance bonuses, and generous time off including paid parental and sick leave. Perks can include 24/7 mental-health coaching and therapy, Hinge Health for Anthem enrollees, tuition assistance and professional development, plus on-site food and a wide range of employee discounts on items like computers, mobile phones, home loans, and pet care.