Rivian’s Mind Robotics has hired Doug Field, the former EV and software chief at Ford, as its president. Field brings a wealth of experience, having previously been a VP of special projects at Apple and Tesla’s chief vehicle engineer, where he was instrumental in overseeing the development of the Model 3.

Field will oversee Mind Robotics’ efforts to build ‘universally capable robots’ for use in Rivian’s factories and other applications. The startup, founded by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe in 2025, has raised over $1 billion in financing. Although it hasn’t publicly unveiled any robots, the company claims its designs feature the ‘dexterity and physical reasoning’ required for industrial work.

Scaringe said of Field: 'He has an incredible ability to foster great teams that take on big, complex ideas and deliver products that reset expectations. That’s exactly what Mind needs as we deploy robots into real factories and beyond.' Field joins at a pivotal moment for the robotics industry, with rapid advances in physical AI and significant challenges in hardware and software development.

Meanwhile, Mind Robotics is hiring at a brisk pace, with 32 open positions. The company hasn’t confirmed whether it’s working on a humanoid design or something else, but it is using AI training data from Rivian and will test robots initially in Rivian’s factories. Rivian owns equity in Mind Robotics and will be the first customer for its robots.

Field, in his statement, expressed enthusiasm for the challenge: 'Integrating AI and robotics is one of the most important—and difficult—engineering challenges of our time. Mind has assembled an exceptional team and has a unique advantage: the ability to deploy and learn inside a real, high-volume factory from day one.'