Sr. Software Engineer, AI Hardware Architecture Simulation

paid holidays, flex time, 401(k) United States, California, Palo Alto Jul 29, 2026 What to Expect

You’renot just writing simulators.You’rebuilding the digital twin ofthe siliconthat will run the most important real-world AI on Earth - and eventually beyond it.

Tesla’s next-generation inference chips (AI6 and Dojo 3) are being designed to extract the maximum usable intelligence from every square millimeter of silicon. Your job is to make sure that silicon is correct, fast, and reliablebeforethe firstwafer evercomes back. You will create the pre-silicon development environment that lets the entire AI hardware and software stack move at the speed of first principles instead of the speed of foundry cycles. What You’ll Do

• Own and evolve high-fidelity functional simulators for our custom AI accelerators - the tools that let architects and software teams explore the design space while the hardware is still electrons on a screen
• Build and harden the compiler and hardware-monitoring tooling that turns abstract models into production-grade silicon
• Invent smarter analysis and bug-detection algorithms that catch the subtle, nasty failures that only appear at massive scale and parallelism
• Debug the full stack - compiler bugs, defective silicon behavior, microarchitectural corner cases - on systems that push the limits of what parallel compute can do
• Sit at the intersection of hardware architecture and software, constantly feeding real insights back into the next generation of chips so they become more reliable, more efficient, and more powerful

• Exceptional C++ programming ability and comfortable with assesmbly when the metal matters
• Prior industry or research experience in compilers, program analysis,simulators,and/or hardware testing
• Deep experience with compilers, program analysis, cycle-accurate or functional simulators, or hardware verification/testing
• Evidence that you can take ownership of complex systems and drive them to production quality under real pressure
• Degreein Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent in experience and evidence of exceptional ability

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 - $390,000/annual salary + cash and stock awards + benefits