Internship, Software Engineer, SI Infrastructure (Fall 2026/Winter 2027)

About the role

Internship, Software Engineer, SI Infrastructure (Fall 2026/Winter 2027) | Tesla (Tesla SI)

Location: Palo Alto, California | Req ID: 278578 | Job Type: Intern/Apprentice

What to Expect

Consider before submitting an application

This position is expected to start September 2026 and continue through summer term (ending approximately December 2026) or continuing into winter/spring 2027 if available. We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time (40 hours/week) 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. to experience life at Tesla by giving them ownership over projects that are critical to their team’s success.

We are looking for strong software engineers to help scale the next generation of large SI models for Autopilot, Optimus & Digital Optimus. This role sits at the intersection of distributed systems, machine learning, and performance engineering. You will work closely with ML practitioners and infrastructure engineers to improve training efficiency, accelerate experimentation, and enable larger and more capable models.

The ideal intern is excited about both systems and machine learning. You should be comfortable debugging distributed training issues, analyzing model behavior, and using data to demonstrate how infrastructure improvements translate into better model quality.

You will help build and optimize large-scale training systems running on thousands of GPUs while developing the tools, metrics, and workflows needed to make model scaling faster and more predictable.

What You'll Do

• Optimize large-scale distributed training across thousands of GPUs
• Improve training throughput, utilization, reliability, and scalability
• Develop tooling to identify bottlenecks in compute, networking, memory, and data pipelines
• Design and implement performance optimizations across PyTorch, CUDA, communication libraries, and training frameworks
• Partner with researchers to evaluate how infrastructure changes impact model quality, convergence, and downstream metrics
• Analyze training runs and build dashboards that connect system performance to model outcomes
• Drive improvements in model scaling efficiency, including larger models, longer context lengths, and higher-quality datasets
• Debug complex issues across software, hardware, networking, and machine learning systems
• Build infrastructure that accelerates experimentation and shortens iteration cycles for researchers

What You'll Bring

• Strong software engineering fundamentals in Python and C++
• Experience with distributed systems, high-performance computing, or large-scale infrastructure
• Understanding of machine learning fundamentals, including optimization, training dynamics, and evaluation
• Familiarity with PyTorch and modern deep learning frameworks
• Ability to analyze performance bottlenecks using profiling and observability tools
• Strong debugging and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Pursuing a degree in Computer Science or relevant field of study with a graduation date between December 2026 - December 2027

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.