About Rivian 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 Senior Data Engineer who thrives at the intersection of high-performance data development and platform stewardship. In this role, you aren’t just a passenger on the roadmap—you are a key contributor to how we build. You will spend your time crafting sophisticated data pipelines while taking a high-level interest in the health, setup, and evolution of our Databricks Platform. We value a "Senior Mindset"— someone who naturally looks at a solution and asks, "How can we make this more scalable, more efficient, and more future-proof?" We don't believe in manual drudgery. Our team stays ahead of the curve by integrating the world’s most advanced AI tools into our daily workflows. You will have full access to Gemini, Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and Devin to accelerate architecture design, automate boilerplate, and focus your energy on solving complex logic and platform challenges. Responsibilities ● Hybrid Engineering & Platform Ownership: Balance the delivery of high-impact data pipelines with the responsibility of maintaining and optimizing our Databricks environment. ● Architectural Influence: Act as a technical consultant within the team. You will proactively propose infrastructure improvements and evaluate new technologies to keep our stack at the cutting edge. ● Advanced Lakehouse Development: Design and deploy modular ingestion and processing pipelines using Lakeflow and Databricks Asset Bundles (DABs) for reproducible, automated deployments. ● Platform Stewardship: Take a primary role in Databricks setup, ensuring the environment is tuned for performance and integrated seamlessly with our wider ecosystem. ● Enterprise Governance: Configure and manage enterprise data lineage and metadata through Unity Catalog, ensuring our data remains a trusted asset. ● Collaborative Engineering: Work alongside Data Scientists to build robust data services using Python, SQL, and dbt, helping translate complex requirements into elegant technical solutions. Qualifications ● Experience: 4+ years in Data Engineering, with a deep, hands-on understanding of the Databricks ecosystem, is considered a plus. ● The Architect’s Mindset: You enjoy thinking about the "big picture" and have a track record of proposing and implementing technical improvements. ● Core Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in Python, SQL, and dbt (data build tool). ● Modern Tooling: Strong experience with AWS infrastructure (S3, ECS, Lambdas), GitLab CI/CD, and automated data movement via Fivetran. ● Orchestration: Proficiency in automating complex workflows using Managed Airflow or Databricks Workflows. 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.
Senior Data Engineer
Senior Data Engineer role focused on building sophisticated data pipelines and managing the Databricks Platform. The role emphasizes a "Senior Mindset" for scalability and efficiency, and integrates advanced AI tools like Gemini and Claude into daily workflows for acceleration and automation. Responsibilities include hybrid engineering and platform ownership, architectural influence, advanced lakehouse development, platform stewardship, enterprise governance with Unity Catalog, and collaborative engineering with Data Scientists using Python, SQL, and dbt. Requires 4+ years of Data Engineering experience, proficiency in Python, SQL, dbt, AWS, GitLab CI/CD, Fivetran, and Airflow/Databricks Workflows.
What you'd actually do
- Hybrid Engineering & Platform Ownership: Balance the delivery of high-impact data pipelines with the responsibility of maintaining and optimizing our Databricks environment.
- Architectural Influence: Act as a technical consultant within the team. You will proactively propose infrastructure improvements and evaluate new technologies to keep our stack at the cutting edge.
- Advanced Lakehouse Development: Design and deploy modular ingestion and processing pipelines using Lakeflow and Databricks Asset Bundles (DABs) for reproducible, automated deployments.
- Platform Stewardship: Take a primary role in Databricks setup, ensuring the environment is tuned for performance and integrated seamlessly with our wider ecosystem.
- Enterprise Governance: Configure and manage enterprise data lineage and metadata through Unity Catalog, ensuring our data remains a trusted asset.
Skills
Required
- Python
- SQL
- dbt
- AWS infrastructure (S3, ECS, Lambdas)
- GitLab CI/CD
- Fivetran
- Managed Airflow or Databricks Workflows
Nice to have
- Databricks ecosystem
What the JD emphasized
- Databricks ecosystem
- Python
- SQL
- dbt