Internship, Reinforcement Learning Engineer, Optimus (Summer 2026)

About the role

Internship, Reinforcement Learning Engineer, Optimus (Summer 2026) | Tesla (Tesla SI)

Location: Palo Alto, California | Req ID: 253454 | Job Type: Intern/Apprentice

What to Expect

Consider before submitting an application

This position is expected to start around August or September 2025 and continue through the Fall term (ending approximately December 2025) or continuing into Winter/Spring 2026 if available and there is an opportunity to do so. We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time and on-site, for most internships. Our internship program is for students who are actively enrolled in an academic program. Recent graduates seeking employment after graduation and not returning to school should apply for full-time positions, not internships.

International Students: If your work authorization is through CPT, please consult your school on your ability to work 40 hours per week before applying. You must be able to work 40 hours per week on-site. Many students will be limited to part-time during the academic year.

Tesla is on a path to build humanoid bi-pedal robots at scale. As a member of the software team, you will design and implement reliable & efficient code for learned robotics, specifically applying to precise manipulation, full body locomotion, and more. You will be responsible for end-to-end robotic learning and own this stack from inception to deployment. Most importantly, you will see your work repeatedly shipped to and utilized by thousands of humanoid robots in real world applications.

What You'll Do

• Develop end-to-end robotic learning with either reinforcement or imitation learning
• Train machine learning and deep learning models on a computing cluster for grasping and locomotion tasks
• Learn to perform dexterous tasks using high degree of freedom hands
• Learn different robot policies to solve language-conditioned tasks from vision

What You'll Bring

• Currently pursuing an advanced degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, or a related field with a gradation date between 2025 - 2026
• Experience in end-to-end robotic learning, with either imitation or reinforcement learning
• Exposure to robot learning through tactile and/or vision-based sensors is a plus
• Strong software and computing fundamentals

Benefits

As a full-time Tesla Intern, you will be eligible for

• Medical plans > plan options with $0 payroll deduction
• Family-building, fertility, adoption and surrogacy benefits
• Dental (including orthodontic coverage) and vision plans. Both have an option with a $0 payroll contribution
• Company Paid (Health Savings Account) HSA Contribution when enrolled in the High Deductible Medical Plan with HSA
• Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k), Employee Stock Purchase Plans, and other financial benefits
• Company Paid Basic Life, AD&D, and short-term disability insurance (90 day waiting period)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Sick and Vacation time (Flex time for salary positions), and Paid Holidays
• Back-up childcare and parenting support resources
• Voluntary benefits to include: critical illness, hospital indemnity, accident insurance, theft & legal services, and pet insurance
• Commuter benefits
• Employee discounts and perks program
• Earned Wage Access: Real-time pay access paid daily, subject to eligibility and schedule (applicable for below Sr. Managers levels)

Expected Compensation$100000.00 - $150000.00 + benefitsPay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements dependent on the position offered. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.