Technical Lead Senior Manager, Enterprise AI

About this role

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

AI is already changing how our engineers write, review, test, and ship software across Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies (RVT). Many useful tools already exist. The next step is to productionize them and make them work across teams, so each win scales across the company. You’ll lead a small team of engineers doing exactly that. You’ll stay close to the code, spending about half your time on architecture, design reviews, and hands-on building, and you’ll work with engineering leaders across domains to make AI a natural part of how we build.

RESPONSIBILITIES

- Set the direction for reusable AI tooling, from agent runtimes and evaluation to skills, plugins, and agentic loops, and own the roadmap that gets it into engineers’ hands.

- Build AI tooling that works with any model, open-source or proprietary, so teams can switch as the model landscape evolves without rebuilding their workflows.

- Put AI to work across the development lifecycle, from code review and testing to triage, alongside engineering leaders in every domain.

- Lead design reviews and build prioritized AI services and developer tools yourself, owning their reliability, observability, and cost.

- Connect the dots across engineering groups: spot shared patterns, reuse components, and stop duplicate work before it starts.

- Set the bar for evaluation, guardrails, and monitoring, measuring quality, safety, and developer impact across open-source and proprietary models.

- Show the impact in terms engineers feel: cycle time, quality, and hours returned from low-value work.

- Make AI workloads fast and affordable, and make the build-versus-buy calls that keep us moving.

- Build security, privacy, and auditability into every tool, with Security, Compliance, and Audit as partners from the start.

- Work with DevEx, IT, and domain teams to shape AI-native development workflows that engineers actually want to use.

- Lead and develop a small team of engineers.

QUALIFICATIONS

- BS or MS in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.

- 8+ years in software engineering, including production systems in enterprise environments.

- 2+ years leading engineers as a tech lead or engineering manager.

- Hands-on experience building and operating AI-native developer tools, internal platforms, or CI/CD systems in production.

- Hands-on experience with language models and agents, including tool use, context management, and evaluation in production, across both open-source and proprietary models.

- Deep familiarity with the latest developments in AI, especially as they apply to software development, and the judgment to separate what’s production-ready from what isn’t yet.

- Experience designing abstractions that keep tooling portable across model providers and frameworks.

- Experience defining architectures and standards that create leverage across multiple teams.

- Working knowledge of security, privacy, and auditability for AI-enabled developer tooling.

- Strong communication skills, with the ability to influence engineering leaders across domains.

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 https://rvtech.mybenefits.life/.

External candidates can apply for this role through the Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies careers site (https://rivianvw.tech/#careers). If you are a current employee, please apply through our internal job board https://app.ashbyhq.com/internal/job-board/b10a9912-eb45-4a84-9a34-84b2a459923a.

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…