Rivière served as officer in the French Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1992 and 1994. He was a press counselor to his country embassy in The Hague, Netherlands until 1997, after which he moved to Washington, D.C. until 2001. He was vice president of external and governmental affairs of EADS-Astrium from 2001 to 2002.
Rivière then served in the offices of two Foreign Ministers: first, as Counselor for Economic Affairs, Asia and North America in the office of Dominique de Villepin (2002-2004), then as Counselor for International Economic issues, Asia and Americas in the office of Michel Barnier (2004-2005).
Rivière was Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in New York (2009-2010) then Assistant Secretary for United Nations, International Organizations, Human Rights and Francophonie from 2011 to 2014. He was Director General of Political and Security Affairs at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2019.[3]
In July 2019 Rivière was appointed by PresidentEmmanuel Macron as the new permanent representative of France to the United Nations, starting July 8, 2019.[1][2]