RJ Scaringe, the founder and CEO of Rivian, is stepping into an additional position at the company as it undergoes a reorganization in preparation for the R2 SUV’s debut next year, a process that includes laying off over 600 staff members.
In an email sent to employees on Thursday, Scaringe announced he will temporarily serve as Rivian’s chief marketing officer while the company searches for its first permanent hire for the role. The leaders of Rivian’s “marketing experiences” group and the head of the creative studio will now report directly to Scaringe, according to an email reviewed by TechCrunch.
It remains uncertain how many people currently report directly to Scaringe—a spokesperson declined to answer—but he mentioned on the Decoder podcast last year that the number was “quite large.”
Thursday’s announcement marks the third round of layoffs at Rivian in 2024. In June, as first reported by TechCrunch, the company eliminated about 140 positions from its manufacturing department. A similar reduction affected the sales and service teams in September. Earlier in the year, Rivian also enacted a more significant workforce cut of 10%.
“I am reaching out to share some tough news,” Scaringe wrote in his Thursday message to staff. “With the R2 launch approaching and our need to scale the business sustainably, we have made the hard choice to implement several organizational changes. As a result, our workforce will shrink by approximately 4.5%.”
Scaringe pointed to a “shifting operational environment”—referencing the end of the federal EV tax credit, higher tariffs from the Trump era, and broader challenges for clean energy in the U.S.—as reasons the company needed to “re-evaluate how we expand our go-to-market teams.”
Alongside Scaringe’s new oversight of marketing and creative, the company will also be “simplifying” the customer experience, according to the email. Rivian is moving its “vehicle operations” group to merge with its service department, while delivery and “mobile operations” will now be part of the sales team.
These organizational updates are intended to “make the buying process as smooth as possible, providing a single point of contact from the initial sale through to delivery,” Scaringe explained.
