By Grace Kim

Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics has appointed Doug Field as president, securing one of the most traveled engineering executives in the electric vehicle industry for its secretive robotics startup.

The move is a major coup for the company. Field arrives with a resume that spans the three most consequential American players in vehicle software and electrification: Apple, Tesla and Ford.

Who is Doug Field?

Field was most recently a vice president of special projects at Apple, where he served as the de facto head of Project Titan. That effort to build an autonomous electric car ultimately failed, and Apple wound it down.

His first stint at Apple ran as vice president of Mac hardware engineering. He left in 2013 to become Tesla's chief vehicle engineer. At Tesla, he helped oversee the Model 3 sedan, the volume program that defined the company's shift from niche manufacturer to mass automaker.

Field left Tesla in 2018 and rejoined Apple. In 2021, Ford hired him to run the automaker's electric vehicle and software division, a post he held before departing ahead of the Mind Robotics appointment.

What does the hire signal?

The appointment signals that Mind Robotics intends to compete for serious engineering talent as it builds out its operations. The startup has kept its work quiet since emerging from Rivian, and the company has not disclosed detailed product plans.

Field's trajectory tracks the industry's own arc. He moved from consumer hardware at Apple, through volume EV production at Tesla, back to autonomy programs at Apple, and then to legacy-auto electrification at Ford. Each stop gave him a different piece of the skill set a robotics venture spun out of an EV maker would need: hardware discipline, production experience, software leadership.

Why Rivian spun off the unit

Rivian created Mind Robotics as a spinoff, though the company has released few details about the unit's scope, funding or headcount. The Field hire is the clearest public signal yet that the startup is scaling its leadership team.

For Rivian, the spinoff structure separates an unproven robotics bet from the core electric truck and SUV business. Field's arrival gives the venture an operational leader who has run vehicle programs at three companies that each spent billions attempting to define the future of transportation.

His Apple tenure carries particular weight. Project Titan consumed roughly a decade of investment before Apple abandoned the car effort, and Field stood at its center. That failure, and the lessons from it, now transfer to a company betting that robotics is the more achievable path.

What comes next

Mind Robotics has not announced products, timelines or manufacturing partners. Field's first task will be shaping the organization and its technical direction.

The hire positions the startup to attract follow-on talent from the same Apple, Tesla and Ford networks Field has built over two decades, and the competitive race for robotics engineers among EV makers will likely tighten as a result.