Rivian 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.
As 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.
Role Summary
We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer in Test to lead the automation strategy and execution for our Vehicle Access Systems (VAS) – the features that enable Digital Key (CCC), NFC, BLE, UWB, key fobs, and related access experiences across current and future vehicle platforms.
This is the first hands-on, technical, and team-building role for the VAS System Test in the Lund office, serving as the foundational Software Engineer in Test for the site. You will work closely with the development team to define the overall test strategy, execute testing, and report results to both development and test teams. You will own all test activities, including building and maintaining the test environment and ensuring product quality within VAS. Your remit will be to eventually design, build, and grow a high-performance automation/test team in Lund, while providing day-to-day technical direction, executing the strategy, and acting as the primary bridge between Lund and our teams in North America and other regions.
You will own end‑to‑end test and automation for VAS—from framework design to CI/CD integration, test benches, and on‑vehicle validation—while coordinating closely with site leaders, partner teams on the Lund site, and global stakeholders to ensure alignment on priorities, scope, and quality.
Responsibilities
- Lead the Lund VAS automation & system test team
- Provide technical and people leadership for the local VAS test/automation team in Lund, including mentoring engineers, setting goals, and supporting career growth together with local management.
- Coordinate daily priorities and test activities with local development, product, and site leadership, ensuring Lund’s efforts are tightly aligned with global VAS goals.
- Act as the primary interface between Lund and North America VAS teams, helping to close gaps in communication, test coverage, and release readiness across time zones.
- Own automation strategy for VAS
- Define and drive the test automation strategy for Vehicle Access features (Digital Key, NFC, BLE, UWB, key fobs, immobilizer, sleep/wake, user profiles) across multiple vehicle platforms and programs.
- Balance unit, integration, system, and end‑to‑end automation to maximize coverage and early defect detection (shift‑left testing).
- Design and build automation frameworks
- Architect, implement, and maintain Python‑based automation frameworks and tooling for VAS benches and vehicles (e.g., Pytest‑based suites, internal tools, log parsers and dashboards).
- Integrate automation into CI/CD pipelines (GitLab/Jenkins or similar) and ensure tests are reliable, repeatable, and visible to engineering and leadership.
- Scale system and end‑to‑end testing
- Develop automated scenarios that span mobile, cloud, and vehicle for key flows such as enrollment, pairing, lock/unlock, passive entry/exit, immobilizer, and error handling.
- Leverage test benches, HIL setups, and real vehicles to validate behavior under realistic and adverse conditions (signal quality, power, network variation, hardware faults).
- Lead quality for feature and release cycles
- Partner with VAS System Test, development, product, and program teams to define test plans, coverage goals, and exit criteria for features and releases.
- Use data from automated and manual runs to drive clear release recommendations and continuous improvement of test suites (flakiness reduction, gap closure, tech‑debt burn‑down).
- Mentor and collaborate across locations
- Mentor other automation, system test, and integration engineers in Lund and remote sites, sharing best practices in test design, coding standards, and debugging of complex, distributed systems.
- Work closely with cross‑functional partners (firmware, mobile, cloud, security, HIL, tools) in Lund, North America, and other locations to align on testability, logging, diagnostics, and lab infrastructure needs.
- Invest in tooling and process
- Help evolve our VAS test strategy, metrics, dashboards, and reporting so that quality is transparent and actionable across the organization.
- Contribute to continuous improvement of how we plan, track, and execute work (e.g., MR testing, regression strategy, bench management, and “test as a service” models).
Qualifications
- Education & experience
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related field.
- 8+ years of hands-on experience in software test automation or quality engineering, including system‑level testing of complex, distributed or embedded products.
- Prior experience in automotive, embedded systems, connectivity, or other safety‑critical domains is strongly preferred.
- Technical skills
- Strong programming skills in Python/Java/C/C++ for test automation and tooling (Preferred Pytest or similar), including test frameworks, libraries, and utilities.
- Experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD (GitLab, Jenkins or similar), including pipelines for benches and vehicles.
- Solid understanding of hardware‑software integration and test environments (HIL, benches, vehicle bring‑up, diagnostic tools such as Ride/UDS/CAN).
- Familiarity with BLE/UWB/NFC, CAN/Ethernet, and security/identity concepts for access systems is a plus.
- Collaboration & leadership
- Proven experience leading test or automation teams, including setting direction, prioritizing work, and coaching engineers across locations.
- Ability to coordinate with multiple leaders and stakeholders on the Lund site (development, product, program, systems, lab) and keep everyone aligned on status, risks, and next steps.
- Comfortable working with teams across time zones and cultures, building strong relationships with partners in North America and other regions, and keeping communication clear and proactive.
- Excellent communication skills (verbal and written), able to simplify complex technical topics and drive decisions with data and clear arguments.
You are reliable, accountable, and willing to go the extra mile when needed—owning issues end‑to‑end, following through on commitments, and continuously pushing the team and process to the next level.
Bonus Points
- Experience with:
- Test data and results visualization (dashboards, metrics for build health and release readiness).
- AI‑assisted test authoring or prioritization, or large‑scale regression management.
- Working in globally distributed teams and collaborating across multiple sites and partners.
- Have embedded development experience
- Use/build AI tools in testing.
Equal Opportunity
Rivian 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.
Rivian 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 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.
Rivian 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.
Rivian 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 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.
Please note that we are currently not accepting applications from third party application services.