Ryan Heinze

Led all capital equipment investments for Rivian’s stamping, plastic injection molding, tool room machinery, and body joining equipment commodities across all Rivian manufacturing operations. Developed and executed a robust capital and equipment deployment strategy spanning both brownfield and greenfield environments, with responsibility to inform executive leadership on the optimal approach to capital deployment for current and future production sites. This strategy prioritized cash preservation, structuring contracts to push the majority of capital payments later in the project lifecycle while maintaining strong near‑term cash flow. Defined sourcing strategies and led procurement of >$100M in long‑lead stamping equipment for a future greenfield stamping shop, while also sourcing, negotiating, and supporting the build‑out and startup of a new plastic injection molding greenfield facility within a 10‑month timeline. This role emphasized strong commercial leadership — including the development of contractual frameworks, long‑term supplier partnerships, and extensive negotiation strategies to limit tariff headwinds on large‑scale capital equipment. Drove competitive pricing and favorable commercial terms while ensuring technical readiness, scalability, and alignment with Rivian’s long‑term manufacturing strategy. To support disciplined capital decision‑making, built and implemented robust cost breakdowns, bid‑leveling processes, and detailed should‑cost models across all major equipment categories, enabling data‑driven sourcing decisions and improved capital efficiency. Additionally, partnered cross‑functionally to navigate extensive project reporting, capital tracking, and budget refresh requirements associated with securing and maintaining a U.S. Department of Energy loan, ensuring compliance, transparency, and alignment between manufacturing execution, financial planning, and federal funding obligations.

Led all capital equipment investments for stamping, plastic injection molding, and CNC machining commodities at Rivian’s brownfield manufacturing facility. Owned end‑to‑end CapEx execution, including supplier selection, commercial negotiations, contract development, and capital governance, while partnering closely with Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Finance, and Program teams to ensure equipment readiness and successful vehicle launches. In parallel with day‑to‑day execution, supported long‑range manufacturing planning for future greenfield facilities by developing commodity strategies, supplier roadmaps, and equipment sourcing approaches to enable Rivian’s next phase of growth.

One of the first members (7th hire) of Rivian’s CapEx organization, with a primary focus on building a robust and reliable global supplier base from the ground up to support stamping and plastic injection molding operations. In close partnership with the Manufacturing Engineering team, I led the development of equipment specifications from first principles and was the first to source all stamping and plastic injection molding machinery across Rivian. I also led the refurbishment and recommissioning of a 1980s brownfield stamping and plastics facility, enabling in‑house component production for Rivian’s first four vehicle programs — equipment that remains in production use today. (6 x stamping press lines, 9 x massive die handling cranes, 2 x blanking lines, 1 x stamping scrap conveyance system, 2 x 4500t plastic injection molding machines, 1 x resin distribution system, 1 x chilled water system, etc.) This work laid the foundation for Rivian’s early manufacturing capabilities and supported the successful launch of the R1T, R1S, EDV700, and EDV500 platforms.

Member of a team of resident assistants placed in resident halls on-campus to assist residents by connecting them with campus resources, building genuine relationships with them, being the mediator in conflict situations and creating a safe living space where residents can sleep, study and interact with others comfortably. All resident assistants receive training in REHS and mandatory reporter guidelines: (problem solving strategies, identity awareness and sensitivity, recognizing / reporting incidents of bias, active listening techniques, identifying and addressing risky behavior, coping mechanisms, etc.) Verbal and Written Communication: - Promoted department initiatives through social media and in-person programming. - Mediated student conflicts and counseled undergraduate students on academic and personal concerns. - Addressed and documented undergraduate students’ university policy violations. - Designed and distributed engaging online and printed publicity for community programs. - Regularly updated undergraduate students on residence hall and campus community events. Ability to process information/Crisis Response: - Served as a first-responder to student emergencies including mental health and alcohol misuse. Dependability: - Attended weekly/bi-weekly/monthly community development staff meetings. - Regularly met with supervisor for personal and professional development. Understanding of Diversity: - Facilitated conversations on diversity and social justice. Applied Skills: Dependable, positive, self-motivated, team player, organized and able to manage multiple priorities, effective communicator, flexible, good under pressure, great communicator, strong critical thinking / problem-solving skills and decision-making ability, empathy and understanding of diversity.

Work as a Career Peer at The Center for Spartan Engineering Career Engagement Office - Coach students with career-relevant guidance to assist with preparedness for networking and job fairs through resume & cover letter critiquing, discussing interview techniques & strategies, and provide other career information as needed - Communicate with engineers, employers, and university alumni to provide information and uphold university values during all Center-related events

Global Supply Chain Intern working as a member of the Infotainment Direct Purchasing team. Overview of Projects: -Responsible for monthly savings of ~$150k - $200k from leading dual sourcing / cost-down projects for autopilot hardware cooling systems through the coordination of weekly commercial meetings with suppliers, collaborating with suppliers and Tesla design engineers to modify part designs to reduce unit price and improve part performance, performing cost savings analyses for the Tesla finance team and quality engineers to accelerate the PO approval and part qualification process, and working with material planners to drive additional savings by expediting the transition from air to ocean shipments -Collaborated with packaging engineering team to decrease the unit cost through simplification of packaging designs for several autopilot hardware components resulting in a 62% reduction in packaging costs -Utilized data from Tesla GSMs and suppliers to create a CapEx tooling database and should-cost model to track tooling purchases and improve sourcing strategy for future tooling purchases

Global Supply Chain Intern working as a member of the Indirect CapEx Purchasing team. Overview of Projects: -Provided extensive tooling and machinery procurement support needed to build the new Model 3 manual assembly line in a 2-week construction window by issuing 120+ POs (total ~$2.2 million) -Managed the production torque tool commodity for all of Model 3 general assembly through the implementation of a streamlined tool request, purchasing and expedited delivery system, meeting regularly with production engineers, and purchasing all torque tools needed to increase vehicle manufacturing capacity by 1000+ cars per week to hit overall targeted production volumes -Responsible for leading $800k in cost avoidance savings by collaborating with production engineers to plan for future tooling needs and frequently leading meetings with tooling suppliers to negotiate for better pricing, shorter lead times and better terms by leveraging current and planned bulk tooling purchases -Created CapEx tooling should-cost model by auditing current general assembly systems and analyzing historical machinery invoice data to improve planning and negotiation efforts for future assembly line builds

Supplier Industrialization Engineering Intern working as a member of the Direct Battery Cells and Raw Materials Purchasing teams. Overview of Projects: -Utilized Tableau software to create visual displays of global manufacturing capacity for key products used in Tesla vehicles to easily track global trends and improve traceability of essential products -Implemented new material handling system to actively analyze data from all incoming aluminum/steel auto-body sheet coils to identify gaps in quality and logistics data submissions, reject all out of spec coils, request missing quality data from suppliers, and issue chargebacks as necessary -Created a comprehensive Model Y material consumption & pricing model to assist the materials engineering and purchasing teams to optimize material and structural components for future vehicles -Initiated, reviewed and finalized PPAP qualifications for battery cells and raw materials teams by meeting with suppliers and Tesla engineers regularly to properly certify new components for current and upcoming vehicles

Quality Engineering Intern working as a member of the Sealing Systems Operations team. Overview of Projects: -Created an extensive user guide with screen shots and a video outlining the best programming techniques for a new imaging program, Starrett M3, and developed / executed a training program with the intention to implement in all production facilities -Utilized CAD files to create extrusion profile optical overlays for the Starrett M3 imager to improve quality performance metrics through automation of quality checks and removal of operator intervention / error - Worked within the quality group on programming and implementing the Starrett M3 Imager system. The goal of the project was to modernize Cooper Standard's quality verification procedures. The project required leading the programming of the imager to identify and flag out-of-spec characteristics on parts being tested using the imager device - Programed several 10x profiles with the Starrett M3 software making sure to implement the auto-run feature for part verification

Worked as an operations intern at the world headquarters for Cooper Standard Automotive. The internship consisted of a large variety of experiences and exposure to many different processes involved in the sealing system creation process. Those experiences are as follows: -Project manager at a tool shop, learning the tool making processes and how to do project management, gained skills in Microsoft Project, tracked parts and created GANT chart to help with tool creation efficiency, understand the processes involved in tool creation, assisted in tooling creation, understand tool creation timelines and learned about final tool assembly and implementation. -Mold Flash Reduction Research: Assisted in the Mold Flash Reduction project that will help Cooper be more efficient by reducing scrap in the molding processes. This project required learning how to run the extrusion press, how to properly purge, load, run, then purge materials to keep the machine running properly, an understanding of what makes a good part and what doesn't, insight into which of the 8-10 variables affects each of Cooper Standard's common materials more than others, and assisting in the manual notching, molding, and packaging processes involved in the prototype process. -Assisted in Emerging Market Benchmarking process: Helped our research team find and identify what types of sealing systems are used in target companies that Cooper Standard plans to try to work with and sell our sealing systems. -Assisted in Cooper Standard Advanced Engineering Center for sealing systems research and development. Learned the extrusion processes for Fortrex™, plastic and rubber extrusion. Also learned injection mold fabrication processes. -Assisted with a PPAP process in the Cooper Standard East Tawas Facility.

Created new website for the race, helped coordinate race with Amy Dalton, updated and ran social media accounts, photographer on the day of the race

Currently studying at Michigan State University and pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science Engineering.