Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has taken on another role at the public EV maker as chief product officer Nick Kalayjian exits the job and eventually into an advisory role. according to regulatory filing and internal emails seen by TechCrunch. Scaringe will now be responsible for all product development — a critical position at a company working on a next-generation platform that’s supposed to deliver more affordable EVs and help launch Rivian into the mass market.
Kalayjian will transition to the role of executive vice president of vehicle engineering and propulsion and will continue to report to the CEO. Scaringe said in an internal email seen by TechCrunch that Kalayjian will focus on “Peregrine” (the next-generation platform that will be used in all vehicles – R1, R2 and the electric truck) before eventually moving to a product and technology advisory role.
“You’ve heard me say time and time again in our company updates that it’s important that quality plays a central role throughout our business – it not only guides how our brand is perceived, but is a major factor in our ongoing ramp,” Scaringe wrote. email to employees.
In a separate internal email, Kalayjian wrote:
With that, it’s time to make a change. Over the last few months, I took the time to Zoom Out and talk with RJ to figure out how my involvement could continue to allow me to have an impact while letting me step back from my existing role. My desire to make changes aligns perfectly with RJ’s desire to redirect more time and energy to Product leadership. I have never met anyone in my life or career who is a better combination of engineer and visionary product leader than RJ. I know that spending more time working with our product teams will create significant value for all of us and our stakeholders.
The move includes some other reshuffles on the executive team, specifically who reports to Scaringe and Kalayjian.
Richard Farquhar, who has been vice president of promotion, will step down from his current role on December 11 and take up a new role as senior vice president of future R&D. He will report to Scaringe on his return next year. Quality and reliability teams led by Brad Thacker and George Sarakakis will also report directly to Scaringe.
Paul Frey, who heads charging, power and adventure products, will now also be responsible for battery and will continue to report to Kalayjian. Silva Hiti, senior director of power conversion, and Henry Huang, senior director of power and thermal engineering, will also report directly to Kalayjian.
