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Adam Momand
CST 300 Writing Lab
11 January 2022 
     

The Electric Behemoth: Rivian’s Rise to Power in Automotive Technology

The tech industry has been growing for many years now and will continue to keep

growing for a long time. Fortune 500 companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, and

Google are projected to grow at a greater rate than 2 decades ago. As the tech industry grows, the

demand for tech workers grows as well. According to Maryville University, “the number of job

opportunities in software development is projected to increase 22% from 2020 to 2030, much

higher than the projected national growth average growth rate for all professions of 8%” (what is

the Future of Software Engineering, 2021), which means that the tech industry continues to be

one of the fastest growing and in-demand industries of the 21st century. My ongoing education as

a 3rd year computer science major at Cal State Monterey Bay prepares me to enter the tech

industry as a software engineer.

Growth in the technology industry has brought Americans countless life-changing

innovations. For example, 2 decades ago communication between human and businesses were

limited. A decade ago, one could not send and receive money using a mobile phone, book a

flight ticket, order Uber or taxi from his or her phone. Now all of those and many more tasks are

a click away from everyone that owns a mobile phone. The exponential growth in tech has

defined the 21st century. Many companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Cisco

continue to innovate. While broad tech companies like Google innovate software in general,

automotive companies such as Rivian and Tesla focus on automotive innovation, combining

various aspects of the tech industry. For example, Tesla has been working on self-driving cars

for a long time now and most of its cars have half self-driving features, but it requires a driver to
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be behind the wheel while driving. Another way that automotive technology companies innovate

is by equipping modern vehicles with notifications about battery charge level and heat and cold

related issues with the battery, preclusion notification, cruise control, sensors for different

purposes, self-braking and more. Automotive technology continues to be a big player in the tech

industry overall, and due to the combination of software and mechanical engineering that this

industry requires, the need for more software engineers continues to increase.

To focus on a newer player in the automotive technology industry, Rivian Automotive,

LLC attempts to establish market share with the release of its first fully electric car in 2021.

Rivian’s headquarters is in Irvine, California with other offices across Northern California, and

offices across almost all 50 US States. Its manufacturing location is in Normal, Illinois, and

according to The New York Times, Rivian is planning to open its second manufacturing location

in Georgia (Boudette, 2021). Rivian also has offices in the UK and Canada with plans to become

a major player in Europe and the rest of the world. Rivian employs 11,000 workers as of January

2022 across the globe and it continues to grow at a very fast pace. According to Rivian’s

companywide announcement, Rivian, on average, hires 140 employees weekly in the US as well

as in other countries. In 2019, when I started working with Rivian, it had only 1000 employees.

Two years later it grew to 7,000 employees despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Rivian continues to

expand with 3 new types of vehicles in production and a growing need for software engineers

and other tech employees.

Rivian started with in the Florida hometown of its CEO RJ Scaringe. When Mr. Scaringe

finished his Ph.D in 2009, the 26 years old started this company with the vision of efficient

hybrid sport cars and after long wait and research, he changed the name of his father’s firm from

Mainstream Motors to Rivian Automotive which combines two words: River and Indian, which
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refers to the Indian River by Mr. Scaringe’s childhood home. Mr. Scaringe started Rivian

Automotive in an unused part of his father’s company. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr.

Scaringe funded his company by selling his home that he had bought when he was in high school

by working 3 jobs at the same time. Mr. Scaringe struggled to fund his business but later found

the solution to his issue in his friend Hassan whom he met in college. His father was Abdul Latif

Jameel, who ran an auto distribution group in Saudi Arabia and was rich. Mr. RJ Scaringe didn’t

hesitate to ask for help and with the vast resources at his friend’s disposal, Hassan provided the

funding necessary to expand his vision of creating efficient hybrid sports cars (Foldy, 2021).

Mr. Scaringe the founder of Rivian Automotive gained the nickname of “the worst

nightmare of Tesla” as he plans to innovate and grow in the automotive technology sector, which

Tesla up until this point, has continued to dominate. Mr. Scaringe is originally from Florida, and

he studied and grew up in Florida, United States. Mr. Scaringe studied mechanical engineering

and economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he completed his masters and Ph.D. at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. RJ Scaringe’s educational background complements his

industry in automotive technology. It has helped him establish his company as he understands

some of the finer aspects of mechanical engineering necessary for automotive innovation. Mr.

Scaringe has also employed very talented and experienced people for most of his management

level positions. One of such examples is Jimmy Knoff, Executive Vice President of Facilities

with Rivian, who was senior Global Director of facilities before with Tesla. Also, Nick

Kalayjian, previously Tesla’s VP of Engineering and Director of Engineering; now, is Executive

Vice President of product development with Rivian. In order to ensure it’s success, Rivian has

recruited many important people from automotive companies like Tesla, as well as tech

companies like Amazon, Google, and Apple.

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Rivian offers three vehicles that have been introduced and advertised in public. One of

which is called R1T which is a full-size pickup truck, which has already been manufactured and

delivered to at least those pre order customers and now it’s available on the market as well. The

R1T truck is fully electric with 314 miles range and the price starts from $67500 to $73000.

MotorTrend has recognized R1T as the MotorTrend truck of 2022 (Evans, 2021). The second

vehicle is called R1S. It is an SUV and it’s expected to be ready in the first couple months of

2022 for manufacturing. The SUV and pickup truck were supposed to be manufactured in early

2021, but, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, their manufacturing time was delayed many times. The

SUV range is almost similar to the pickup truck, but the price starts at $70000 and it’s also fully

electric. Rivian is also manufacturing delivery vans fully electric for Amazon for its delivery

business, a partnership that shows how important Rivian has already become in the realm of

automotive technology.   

Rivian has attracted many big companies to invest in its adventurous all Electric

Vehicles vision. The most important company investing in Rivian is Amazon, which has

invested millions of dollars in Rivian and has ordered 10,0000 fully electric vans from the brand-

new company. This big order from Amazon has made Rivian famous and has attracted major

investors like Cox and Wall Street Firms that have invested billions of dollars in the company

(Eavis & Boudette,2021). Amazon’s major investment in Rivian automotive marked the end of

the companies funding issue (Shama, 2019). With the proper funding, Rivian automotive could

now switch gear to talent acquisition, the production of important products, and the erection of

manufacturing and distribution facilities.

Tesla’s cyber truck and Rivian’s fully electric truck were originally expected to be

released at the same time, but industry giant Tesla had further delayed the release of its cyber
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truck to early 2023. Rivian, on the other hand, allocated the necessary funding and talent to keep

it’s promised release date, which already sets Rivian apart from other automotive companies.

With the promised release of its fully electric truck, Rivian proved itself to its customers, its

investors, and the general public that it was a company ready for any challenge it would face.

Rivian’s growth through the Covid-19 pandemic shows the company will continue to grow

regardless of economic circumstance. Rivian was hiring in the pandemic even though it had no

product in the market and its stock was not public at the time to have investment from the

general public. During 2020 and 2021, Rivian hired over 7,000 people with the aim of increasing

that number even further. Rivian stock went public on November 10, 2021, at one of the biggest

IPOs of the year with $78 billion dollars.

A company like Rivian automotive with exponential growth in the sector of automotive

technology now seeks new college graduates and other individuals talented in mechanical and

software engineering, and it will continue to do so as long as the company continues to expand.

As a university student and previous Rivian contractor, I meet many of Rivian’s requirements for

employment. I am interested in joining Rivian because Rivian company headquarters is in my

hometown, and it would be very convenient to get a job with the company. I am interested in

getting employment with Rivian as a software engineer or software developer as this matches my

area of study. I started my Computer Science degree at Cal State University Monterey Bay this

year in January 2022 and I will be finishing my bachelor’s degree by the end of 2023. This

computer Science degree covers many software classes such as CST 338 Software Design, CST

363 Database management, CST 370 Algorithms, CST 383 Introduction to Data Science, CST

438 Software Engineering, CST 329 Reasoning with Logic, CST 489 Capstone Project Planning

and 499 Directed Group Capstone. All these fundamental classes and many more classes in the
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program will train me enough to be able to work as a software engineer with Rivian.

Communication is also equally important, and Cal State Monterey Bay has many classes and

group projects that are specifically focusing on communication, and this will help me knowing

how to work on big group projects and have quality communication between coworkers and

managers.

I am also continuously working on my skills to grow in school and outside school. for

example, I am working on a cyber security certificate at Fullerton College, and I have taken

Python, C++, Java, and networking classes and this effort will continue to improve my

programming and communications skills outside of school as well. In addition, I have over 10

years of customer service and communication skills experience which employers see as

necessary. I will be also working hard to find a scholarship part-time or full-time so that I can

practice what I learn in school while I finish my degree to be ready for my dream job as a

software engineer with Rivian company.

Not only does my current skillset, education, and experience make me an excellent

candidate for Rivian’s team of software engineers, but the attractive benefits of working for a

booming startup like Rivian interests me. Rivian employs proven industry leaders in the

industries of software and tech and working for such a company would allow me to work under

and alongside such industry veterans would allow me to build valuable experience in my career

field. The company itself offers all employees unlimited paid time off, medical, 401k, dental, and

even shares of the company. For a limited time, Rivian offers its employees a $20,000 discount

on its fully electric pickup truck, and while I’m unsure if I will purchase a Rivian truck, the

benefit of receiving a discount on their main product along with the bevy of other generous

benefits show me that Rivian cares about attracting high level employees that are passionate
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about the tech, automotive, and software engineering industries. My education and experience in

the software industry and Rivian up to this point make me a prime candidate for an entry level

software engineering job at the company. As the company continues to expand, I would surely

become a leader in the field of software engineering should I successfully enact my plans to join

the company. All in all, Rivian provides an electric opportunity to be at the forefront of

automotive technology and my wheels are turning to discover how best to meet the company's

requirements.
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References

Boudette, N. E. (2021, December 16). Rivian, an E.V. Maker with big ambitions but few sales,

will build a new factory in Georgia. The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2022,

from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/business/rivian-earnings-georgia-plant.html

Evans, S. (2021, December 12). This Gamechanging pickup is the 2022 Motortrend Truck of the

year. MotorTrend. Retrieved January 11, 2022, from https://www-motortrend-

com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.motortrend.com/news/rivian-r1t-2022-truck-of-the-

year/amp/

Evans, S. (2021, December 12). This Gamechanging pickup is the 2022 Motortrend Truck of the

year. MotorTrend. Retrieved January 14, 2022, from

https://www.motortrend.com/news/rivian-r1t-2022-truck-of-the-year/

Foldy, B. (2021, December 11). The challenging road ahead for Rivian's Billionaire CEO. The

Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 14, 2022, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-

challenging-road-ahead-for-rivians-billionaire-ceo-11639198848

Eavis, P., & Boudette, N. E. (2021, October 1). Rivian, an electric vehicle start-up, reveals large

losses in its I.P.O. filing. The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2022, from

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/business/rivian-ipo.html

Shama, E. (2019, September 19). Amazon is purchasing 100,000 Rivian Electric Vans, the

largest order of EV delivery vehicles ever. CNBC. Retrieved January 15, 2022, from

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/19/amazon-is-purchasing-100000-rivian-electric-

vans.html

What is the future of software engineering? Maryville Online. (2021, October 7). Retrieved

January 15, 2022, from https://online.maryville.edu/blog/future-software-engineering/