Machine Learning Engineer, DesignX

About the role

• Machine Learning Engineer, DesignX | Tesla (Construction & Facilities)
• Location: PALO ALTO, California | Req ID: 280081 | Job Type: Full-time
• What to Expect

As a Machine Learning Engineer on the Infrastructure DesignX team, you will play a critical role in developing and scaling the Machine Learning Platform that optimizes and automates infrastructure planning and construction across our national buildout. You will focus on applying deep learning techniques to train neural networks on large-scale datasets enriched with real-world context from field engineers. Training these models robustly at scale and shipping user-friendly products on top of them in the shortest amount of time is central to our mission.

The Machine Learning Platform empowers our engineers to design, build, and manage infrastructure across the nation faster and more efficiently. As infrastructure buildouts, power demands, and construction costs grow more than ever, we're looking for an exceptional machine learning engineer to drive scalability improvements and new capabilities across the platform.

What You'll Do

• Design, develop, train, and deploy machine learning solutions that leverage generative SI technologies, such as Large Language Models (LLMs)
• Develop computer vision models for object detection, segmentation, and classification to identify infrastructure components and site conditions
• Build models that extract structured information from technical documents, drawings, and diagrams
• Develop forecasting and predictive models that turn large-scale operational data into reliable predictions
• Combine multiple data sources, including image, audio, thermal, mechanical, weather, and other sensors, to develop and train end-to-end models
• Analyze and improve the accuracy, efficiency, and scalability of SI models through rigorous data-driven experimentation, evaluation, and iterative training
• Work closely with software engineers to productionize machine learning models and integrate them into scalable, reliable systems
• Build and optimize model training, deployment, and monitoring workflows to enable high-performance SI applications in production

What You'll Bring

• Degree in computer science, or exceptional technical ability with practical machine learning experience
• Proven experience in applying machine learning and AI techniques to solve real-world problems, particularly with generative AI and LLMs
• Strong proficiency writing production-quality code with Python-based machine learning and deep learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX, TGI/vLLM, NumPy)
• Experience designing model architectures and/or building training workflows, evaluation tools, data pipelines, or inference optimizations
• Experience developing computer vision models, such as object detection, segmentation, or classification, including extracting structured information from documents, drawings, or diagrams
• Experience building forecasting or predictive models on large-scale or time-series data
• Background in agentic systems and/or multimodal (vision + language) models
• Experience with post-training or RL methods (PPO, GRPO, RLHF) is a strong plus
• Ability to solve open-ended and difficult technical problems with little guidance, with excellent interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills

Benefits

Along with competitive pay, as a full-time Tesla employee, you are eligible for the following benefits at day 1 of hire:

• Medical plans > plan options with $0 payroll deduction
• Family-building, fertility, adoption and surrogacy benefits
• Dental (including orthodontic coverage) and vision plans, both have options with a $0 paycheck contribution
• Company Paid (Health Savings Accounts) HSA Contribution when enrolled in the High-Deductible medical plan with HSA
• Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k) with employer match, Employee Stock Purchase Plans, and other financial benefits
• Company paid Basic Life, AD&D
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance (90 day waiting period)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Sick and Vacation time (Flex time for salary positions, Accrued hours for Hourly 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
• Weight Loss and Tobacco Cessation Programs
• Tesla Babies program
• 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$140,000 - $258,000/annual salary + cash and stock awards + 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.