Senior Failure Analysis Engineer - Electrical

Company: Rivian
Location: Irvine
Posted on: June 6, 2021

Job Description:

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.

We operate development centers in Plymouth, Michigan; Southern California (Irvine, Carson & LA); Silicon Valley (San Jose and Palo Alto); Vancouver, British Columbia; and Surrey, England; as well as a manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois.

Role Summary

Reliability is at the core of Electric Adventure Vehicles. This position is in Irvine, CA, at the centre of Rivian's Engineering and R&D hub. As a Sr. Electrical FA Engineer on the Irvine Failure Analysis team, you will play a key role in generating insight through conducting failure analysis investigations for all Rivian products from the vehicle to component level.

The Electrical FA Engineer will perform both deep dive and rapid response triage level failure analysis investigations, specializing in the electrical and energy storage systems within the vehicles.

Responsibilities

• Be an integral part of the EE failure analysis team in the Irvine FA lab. Work closely with the electrical FA engineers on the team both in Irvine, CA and in the production facility Normal, IL.

• Perform both deep dive and rapid response triage failure analysis investigations, specializing in the entire vehicle's electrical and energy storage systems.

• Have a thorough understanding of electrical testing methods and their limitations, and a working knowledge of the common equipment used for EE failure analysis such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), time domain reflectivity (TDR), curve tracing, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).
• Collaborate with existing engineering teams (e.g. power conversion, power train, battery cell, materials development, etc.) to help define the needs for electrical and battery specific failure analysis, and identify where they may need help in development of

manufacturing processes, or validation of predictive models, etc. Maintain a constant dialogue on the existing and growing capabilities of the FA team.

• Perform failure analysis activities for incidents originating from reliability testing for new product development and from fielded systems. Assure that root cause is identified at the most detailed level.

• Prepare failure analysis reports with exceptional visualizations and direct the communication and presentation of findings to project teams and at executive reviews.
• Work with reliability engineering and testing to recreate failure modes that are intermittent or hard to replicate. Utilize environmental testing equipment, HALT and other methods to be able to precipitate failures as a precursor to in depth failure analysis. Use

results to field and the best path in terms of addressing the finding with the cross functional teams.

Qualifications

• BSc/MSc in Electrical Engineering and 5+ years relevant industrial experience, preferably in the automotive industry.

• Strong academic background and/or experience in the testing and analysis of EE components, printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), energy storage sub-systems and batteries

• Experience performing failure analysis investigations is required.
• Hands on experience with the application of, and hands on use of, metrology equipment such as curve trace, oscilloscopes, optical microscopy, time-domain reflectometry, parametric and signal analyzers, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, et. for use in detailed battery cell characterization and failure analysis.
• Familiarity with various rechargeable lithium-ion battery chemistries and their fundamental failure mechanism theories is highly desirable.
• Hands on experience with other materials characterization equipment such as optical microscopes, scanning electron microscopes (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS),scanning acoustic microscopes (C-SAM), cross sectioning equipment, decapsulating chemicals, CT-scanning, 2D X-ray, etc. is desirable.
• Experience of preparing formal reports summarizing analysis data and results.
• A desire to create a respectful, fun, inclusive and inspiring team and company culture is a must

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 accessibility@rivian.com.

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