Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe is taking on a new role at his company as part of a restructuring ahead of next year’s launch of the R2 SUV. This restructuring involves a layoff of more than 600 employees.
Scaringe told employees in an email on Thursday that he will be acting as Rivian’s chief marketing officer on an interim basis while the company searches for someone to fill that position permanently. The head of Rivian’s marketing experiences team and the lead of the company’s creative studio will now report directly to Scaringe.
It is not clear how many direct reports Scaringe already has, as a spokesperson declined to comment. However, he mentioned last year that it was a large number.
The cuts announced Thursday are Rivian’s third set of layoffs this year. The company let go of around 140 employees on its manufacturing team in June. Rivian made a similarly sized cut to its sales and service operation in September. These layoffs follow a more dramatic ten percent reduction of Rivian’s workforce in early 2024.
In his email, Scaringe said he was writing to share a difficult update. With the launch of the R2 approaching and the need to profitably scale the business, the company made the very difficult decision to make a number of structural adjustments to its teams. These changes result in a reduction in the size of the team by roughly four and a half percent.
Scaringe said the changing operating backdrop forced the company to rethink how it is scaling its go-to-market functions. This backdrop is a nod to the loss of the federal EV tax credit, increased tariffs from the Trump administration, and general headwinds against clean energy projects in the United States.
In addition to Scaringe taking point on Rivian’s marketing and creative divisions, the company is also streamlining the customer experience. Scaringe said Rivian is moving its vehicle operations team and integrating it with the company’s service division. Meanwhile, Rivian’s delivery and mobile operations will now live inside the sales division.
These structural changes are being made to ensure the purchase experience is as seamless as possible with a single touchpoint throughout the entire sales process and to delivery.