Sr. Backend Engineer, Data Platform, Vehicle Software

About the role

Sr. Backend Engineer, Data Platform, Vehicle Software | Tesla (Vehicle Software)

Location: PALO ALTO, California | Req ID: 266318 | Job Type: Full-time

What to Expect

Come join a small team of engineers building one of the largest device telemetry data platforms at Tesla, powering vehicles, Optimus, energy products, Autopilot, manufacturing, and more.

We own the hybrid data lakes, catalogs, streaming, and query systems that give engineering and operations secure, fast, scalable access to raw and aggregated data. First-principles thinking is core: data is how we understand and improve how our products work in the world, from Autopilot and fault detection to grid optimization.

We are beginning the journey of robotaxi and robotics telemetry for Optimus and beyond. Your work will improve how hundreds of Tesla engineers use data daily, make products more reliable and cheaper worldwide, and advance Tesla’s mission to build a world of amazing abundance.

We’re looking for a talented engineer to own and evolve big data platform services at the intersection of storage, access, query, governance, and automation, including the path to an SI-aware catalog and agent-first experience.

What You'll Do

• Build and evolve a catalog-aware analytics platform with SI context so data is discoverable, governable, and usable at scale by both people and agents
• Design and operate high-performance distributed systems that handle extreme event volume, on the order of hundreds of trillions of events per day
• Own the systems you ship in production, including on-call, incident response, debugging, and durable fixes
• Strengthen multi-tenancy and self-service so teams can securely access and build on data without custom pipelines
• Design for rapid business change while upholding security, data quality, and standardized operating practices
• Partner with data engineers, data scientists, and product teams to deliver efficient, data-driven solutions on the platform
• Help shape how Tesla uses data—both technically and culturally—so decisions are grounded in reliable platforms and clear practices

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of software development experience in distributed data systems, data processing, or infrastructure engineering with deep data processing internals
• Expertise in at least one of Rust, Java, Scala, Python, or Go (Rust is a plus)
• Hands-on experience with several of: Trino, Parquet, Iceberg, Hudi, Kafka, Spark, Kubernetes
• Strong fundamentals in data structures, concurrency, and performance, you reason about systems under load, not only configure them
• Experience operating cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS) and shipping highly available, scalable backend services for large-scale data workloads

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 - $312,000/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.