Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies ยท 3 weeks ago
Hardware Systems Performance Architect - Connectivity / Vehicle Access
Palo Alto, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$132K/yr - $165K/yr
8+ years expRivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is a joint venture focused on the future of automotive technology. The Hardware Systems Performance Architect will lead the performance characterization of low-voltage electrical systems in vehicles, influencing hardware architecture decisions and validating system designs throughout the development cycle.
AutomotiveInformation TechnologySoftware
Responsibilities
Drive the collaboration between hardware architecture, hardware design and software application teams to create comprehensive characterization plans that surface key performance metrics, provide insight into system bottlenecks and chokepoints, reveal over-/under-design scenarios, and validate system performance relative to system requirements
Work cross-functionally to factor high-level functional and performance requirements into their respective sub-systems, distill them into clear system architecture performance requirements capable of validation, and evolve these requirements into future architecture
Lead and support the design, integration and automation efforts related to characterization and validation activities on various hardware testing configurations, including early prototypes boards, bench-top sub-system mock-ups, lab cars, mules, and other HIL infrastructure
Orchestrate the end-to-end development of systems and automation for performance characterization ranging from development of requirements to identification of solutions and their implementation, including integration of h/w and s/w, establishment of control and data acquisition pipelines, and development of downstream data processing infrastructure
Execute characterization plans, leverage analytical methods, and present clear validation metrics and reports that support data-driven architectural decisions, and validate the resulting designs
Contribute to mock-ups or prototypes to study next-gen technologies, establish proofs-of-concept, and/or serve as reference platforms for future bring up, system integration, system-level validation, or future architecture inclusion
Lead the development of hardware and software that enables characterization, testing and certification of wireless sub-systems using robotic automation to measure relevant RF system KPIs vs positional ground truth around the vehicle under test
Qualification
Required
Advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or a related field, and a track record of 8+ years of hands-on experience in relevant practical settings
Deep familiarity with landscape of wireless automotive technologies, e.g. WiFi, BT, BLE, LTE, 5G, especially those relevant to keyless vehicle access, including NFC, BLE, UWB, and their performance evaluation and/or certification at the RF, protocol and systems integration levels
Familiarity with system design and/or certification related to Connect Car Consortium (CCC) and/or Made for iPhone (MFi) keyless entry systems at the module and system levels
Experience designing and/or validating embedded systems optimized for distributed architecture settings, including automotive, aerospace, or other architecturally similar applications
Foundation in RF and electrical engineering fundamentals, and hands-on familiarity with related test and measurement equipment, e.g., logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, DMMs, network analyzers, etc
Solid grasp of the power related aspects of distributed embedded architectures, with focus on efficient low-power states, wake propagation and sequencing
Hands-on coding experience related to some combination of embedded platform bring-up, system software / applications development, or system-level hardware performance instrumentation, and related test automation / scripting
Some familiarity with hardware and software associated with robotic automation for ground truth spatial data capture (for RF system characterization), including optical, inertial and GPS based sensors and sensor fusion for navigation, path-planning, obstacle avoidance, visual odometry, and/or related technologies
Talent for working from first principles to develop software for modeling, data acquisition, mining, analysis, and presentation in using appropriate tools, e.g. Python, MatLab
Innate curiosity to figure out how systems work by decomposing them through the application of fundamental principles, an ability to translate this into measurable metrics, and a drive to leverage these methods to optimize design
Benefits
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies provides robust medical/Rx, dental and vision insurance packages for full-time employees, their spouse or domestic partner, and children up to age 26
Company
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies develops scalable automotive software and technology platforms for multiple vehicle segments.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
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Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageLeadership Team
Kranti Garatkar
Staff Technical Program Manager
Recent News
2025-11-14
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