Lead, Program Management, Commercial Development

Rivian Rivian · Auto · Atlanta, GA · Facilities & Real Estate

This role is a Lead Program Manager for Commercial Development at Rivian, focusing on the expansion of their physical footprint for sales and service locations across North America and Europe. The role involves coordinating reviews, consolidating development inputs, preparing approval materials, and tracking progress across various internal teams (Finance, BizOps, regional teams) to support business growth. It requires strong data synthesis, stakeholder management, financial planning, and process optimization skills. The role is an individual contributor reporting to the Sr. Director of Real Estate and Commercial Development. Success is measured by the efficiency, predictability, and fiscal health of the development pipeline, with KPIs related to budget management, approval throughput, and schedule predictability. Qualifications include 5+ years of program management experience in commercial real estate or multi-site rollouts, strong organizational and communication skills, and proficiency in data visualization and project management tools. Experience in regulated environments is not explicitly mentioned as a requirement.

What you'd actually do

  1. Act as the central point of contact for RDLs to collect, validate, distill, and prioritize site-specific development data (scope, schedule, and budget). Turn disparate regional updates into a single source of truth.
  2. Establish, organize, and lead high-stakes review meetings. You will facilitate discussions between Development, Finance, and BizOps to secure formal approvals for new and remodel projects—building agendas, ensuring the right stakeholders are in the room, documenting action items, and driving follow-ups to closure.
  3. Partner closely with Finance and BizOps to drive and maintain the recurring quarterly forecasting process. This role takes ownership of the maintenance of the evolving business plan to ensure all partners are aligned with the latest changes while helping to build and refine long-term strategies that match Rivian’s aggressive growth targets.
  4. Maintain program-level visibility into the commercial development pipeline by tracking milestone status, dependencies, risks, approval readiness, and critical cross-functional deliverables.
  5. Own and continuously improve the execution-layer processes governing the commercial pipeline (gate communications, AEOR/GC vendor coordination, construction-phase handoffs, and close-out).

Skills

Required

  • 5+ years of dedicated Program Management experience, specifically within commercial real estate, retail construction, or multi-site rollouts/development.
  • Advanced proficiency in data visualization and project management tools (e.g., Google Suite, Databricks, Hex, Autodesk Construction Cloud / ACC).
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
  • Ability to influence, navigate complex approval hierarchies, and gain buy-in from senior leaders in Finance and Operations.
  • Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to track multiple parallel workstreams without losing momentum.

Nice to have

  • Experience or comfort navigating differing regulatory, zoning, and construction environments across both North America and Europe.
  • Adaptable, thrive in high-growth/ambiguous environments.