Apple loses electric car executive as former head of home devices moves to Rivian
Novotney also helped bring the Apple Watch to market, having been brought on to the project by Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams and former head designer Jony Ive. About a decade ago, Novotney was one of a few executives tapped to kick start Apple’s efforts to develop an electric vehicle – a project code-named Titan.
Rivian sees the hire as a major coup. Novotney, who is starting at the company on Monday, will be one of about a dozen senior vice-presidents. In his new role, he’ll lead product management for products and engineering, making him one of the company’s most critical executives.
Rivian’s Scaringe took the head of product role after the previous executive in charge of development, Nick Kalayjian stepped back, Bloomberg News reported in November. Kalayjian is leaving the carmaker this year and Novotney will take on many of his responsibilities.
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Spokespeople for Apple and Rivian declined to comment. Novotney didn’t respond to a request for comment.
For Cupertino-based Apple, the move marks yet another exit in the senior ranks. Tang Tan, Apple’s vice-president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, is leaving the company next month for LoveFrom, Ive’s design firm, while hardware technologies leader Steve Hotelling exited late last year. Across 2022 and 2023, it lost a slew of other executives in hardware, operations and services.