Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has taken on another role within the publicly traded EV maker as chief product officer Nick Kalayjian moves into an advisory position, according to a regulatory filing and internal emails viewed by TechCrunch. Scaringe will now be responsible for all product development — a critical position at a company working on a next-generation R2 platform that is supposed to deliver more affordable EVs and help catapult Rivian into the mass market.
Kalayjian will move to the role of executive vice president of vehicle engineering and propulsion and will continue to report to the CEO. Scaringe said in an an internal email viewed by TechCrunch that Kalayjian will be focused on “Peregrine” (the next-gen platform) before he ultimately transfers to a product and technology advisory role.
In an internal email, Kalayjian wrote:
With this, the time has come for me to make a change. Over the last few months, I’ve taken time to Zoom Out and have been talking with RJ to understand 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 of his time and energy toward Product leadership. I have never met anyone in my life or career who is a better mix of engineer and visionary product leader than RJ. I know that him spending more time working with our Product teams will create significant value for all of us and our shareholders.
The move includes some other executive shuffling.
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