Sr. Backend Engineer, Data Platform, Vehicle Software

paid holidays, flex time, 401(k) United States, California, Palo Alto Apr 25, 2026 What to Expect

Come join a small team of experts building the Tesla's data platforms powered by all Tesla products (vehicles, solar panel, batteries, chargers, robots, autopilot, insurance, etc.).

First Principles thinking is core of engineering culture at Tesla. Data is one of the key elements we use to understand and improve how our products work & interact with the world. Whether we use it to improve autopilot, optimize hardware designs, proactively detect faults, or even optimize load on the electrical grid. We collect data from each of our cars, superchargers, batteries, robots, manufacturing machines, as well as their environments and use it to make these products better, more reliable and cheaper to produce.

Our team is an integral part of the product organization, powering a cutting-edge platform that processes terabytes of IoT data daily, working with Engineering teams on making our products better in every way. From storage to access to data query, our platform allows users to get insight on raw and aggregated data seamlessly. Our highly automated stack is built on top of open-source technologies like Terraform, Kubernetes, Kafka, Spark, Parquet, Presto, and Trino.

We're looking for a talented Engineer to join us and deliver new and improved big data services. Your work will affect many hundreds of Tesla Engineers daily, as well as improving the functionality of all of our products worldwide, and enable new data-driven products such as Tesla Insurance. Join us as we drive innovation in data processing and automation. What You'll Do

• Build and improve industry-leading, scalable distributed systems
• Build back-end systems from scratch that are capable of handling 100s of trillions events per day
• Facilitate operation of highly-available distributed systems at scale and across multiple datacenters
• Help define a platform that is highly leveraged, multi-tenant, and self-serviced
• Work with Data Engineers and data scientists to drive efficient solutions from the platform
• Help define the data story and enable data-driven solutions at Tesla, both technically and culturally

• 5+ years of Software Development Experience
• Expertise in any of Rust, Java, Scala, Python, or Go. Rust is a plus
• Expertise with some core data technologies such as of Trino, Presto, Parquet, Hudi, Iceberg
• Strong programming fundamentals, particularly in data structures & concurrency
• Deep understanding of open-source distributed systems technologies such as Kafka, Spark, ElasticSearch, Kubernetes, etc.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure such as AWS
• Have built and optimized highly available, scalable, distributed back-end services capable of handling terabytes of data

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

Expected Compensation $140,000 - $312,000/annual salary + cash and stock awards + benefits