Staff Software Engineer, Distributed Systems, Generative AI

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Bottlerocket team, you will architect and operate the distributed backend infrastructure that powers Tesla's internal Generative AI platform. You will own critical, high-throughput services end-to-end and drive technical decisions across the stack. This role demands deep systems expertise - you will be solving hard problems around concurrency, reliability, and scale in a fast-moving environment where the playbook is still being written. What You'll Do

• Design, build, and operate production distributed systems that handle high-throughput, low-latency workloads at scale
• Own backend services end-to-end: from API design and data modeling through deployment, observability, and incident response
• Drive architectural decisions for complex systems involving event streaming, caching, service mesh, and workload orchestration
• Partner with ML engineers, product teams, and infrastructure teams to translate requirements into robust, scalable backend solutions
• Mentor engineers across the team, establish engineering best practices, and raise the bar for code quality and system design
• Lead capacity planning and reliability engineering to maintain high availability for business-critical services

Do you have experience in Terraform?, * 8+ years of experience building and operating production distributed systems

• Strong, production-level proficiency in Go and Python
• Deep expertise with Kubernetes, Docker, and container orchestration in production environments
• Hands-on experience with message brokers and event streaming systems (Kafka, NATS, or similar)
• Solid background with relational and analytical databases (Postgres, ClickHouse, or similar) and caching layers (Redis)
• Strong understanding of networking fundamentals: HTTP/2, gRPC, WebSockets, TLS, and reverse proxy architectures (Envoy, NGINX)
• Experience with observability stacks: Prometheus, Grafana, structured logging, and distributed tracing
• Proven experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitOps workflows, and infrastructure-as-code (Helm, Terraform)
• Proficient in leveraging AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) to accelerate development
• Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, make pragmatic tradeoffs, and deliver in environments where standards are still emerging as well as a problem-solving mindset with strong attention to detail and a preference for simple, correct solutions over clever ones

3.33.3 out of 5 stars Fremont, CA 94538 $200,000 - $300,000 a year - Full-time, Pulled from the full job description

• Flextime
• Pet insurance
• AD&D insurance
• Health insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Employee discount
• Health savings account, 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 $200,000 - $300,000/annual salary + cash and stock awards + benefits

Pay 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. Tesla is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

Tesla is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.