Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has taken on one other position throughout the publicly traded EV maker as chief product officer Nick Kalayjian strikes out of the job and finally into an advisory place, in response to a regulatory submitting and inside emails seen by TechCrunch. Scaringe will now be accountable for all product growth — a vital place at an organization engaged on a next-generation platform that’s purported to ship extra inexpensive EVs and assist catapult Rivian into the mass market.
Kalayjian will transfer to the position of government vice chairman of car engineering and propulsion and can proceed to report back to the CEO. Scaringe mentioned in an an inside e-mail seen by TechCrunch that Kalayjian can be centered on “Peregrine” (the next-gen platform that can be used throughout all autos – R1, R2 and the electrical supply van) earlier than he finally transfers to a product and know-how advisory position.
“You’ve got heard me repeatedly state in our firm updates, it’s vital that high quality performs a central position throughout our enterprise – this not solely drives how our model is perceived however it’s a main enabler for our continued ramp,” Scaringe wrote in his e-mail to workers.
In a separate inside e-mail, Kalayjian wrote:
With this, the time has come for me to make a change. Over the previous few months, I’ve taken time to Zoom Out and have been speaking with RJ to know how my involvement might proceed to permit me to have an effect whereas letting me step again from my current position. My want to make modifications aligns completely with RJ’s want to redirect extra of his time and vitality towards Product management. I’ve by no means met anybody in my life or profession who’s a greater mixture of engineer and visionary product chief than RJ. I do know that him spending extra time working with our Product groups will create important worth for all of us and our shareholders.
The transfer contains another shuffling on the manager staff, particularly on who studies to Scaringe and Kalayjian.
Richard Farquhar, who has been vice chairman of propulsion, can be stepping away from his present position December 11 and into a brand new position as senior vice chairman of future R&D. He’ll report back to Scaringe upon his return subsequent yr. High quality and reliability groups led by Brad Thacker and Georgios Sarakakis will even report on to Scaringe.
Paul Frey, who heads up the charging, vitality and journey merchandise, will now be accountable for battery as nicely and can proceed to report back to Kalayjian. Silva Hiti, senior director of electrical energy conversion, and Henry Huang, senior director of energy and thermal engineering, will even report on to Kalayjian.