Software Engineer, C++ Generalist, AI Systems & Infrastructure

What to Expect

Tesla uniquely builds foundational AI that moves beyond pixels and through the physical world — delivering this at scale requires general-purpose robots (Robotaxis & Optimus) capable of navigating complex environments with high precision. Every millisecond counts, as rapid perception & decision-making enables swift responses to dynamic conditions. This is where our Foundations team comes in — we combine low-level software techniques with modern C++ code to optimize the latency, throughput, and memory of our onboard camera & vision stack. Our work directly enhances both the safety & efficacy of Full-Self-Driving (FSD) as well as humanoid dexterity; this is key to expanding the Robotaxi fleet globally and advancing Optimus' ability to perform intricate real-time tasks with near-human accuracy.

What You’ll Do

• Write, debug and maintain robust C/C++ code underpinning the entire FSD & Optimus software suite; depending on needs and your interests/skills, you might work on code related to our high frame rate camera & vision stack, design low memory footprint image compression libraries, implement high performance inter-process communication data buffers, improve/extend our image & raw data logging/telemetry code, or make our evaluation/replay software more stable and performant
• Optimize hardware resources usage, leverage custom hardware components where appropriate
• Advocate for best coding practices amongst the group, build tools helping engineers to write better code (for instance, performance/memory tracking)
• Generalize software frameworks when necessary while keeping in mind that too much abstraction can sometimes become a bottleneck

What You’ll Bring

• Experience programming C/C++ software, including modern C/C++ (C++14/17/20)
• Experience or familiarity with Computer Vision, Machine Learning & related software concepts a plus
• Experience with performant software design, object-oriented C++, compiler design and/or hardcore lower-level C code
• Proficient developing software on a Linux host, for embedded Linux targets (cross-compilation, etc.) a plus
• Experience with at least one of the following preferred: imaging software, Cuda/OpenCL, SIMD, multithreading, Linux system software (posix etc.), & computer vision
• Degree in Computer Science, Physics, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or proof of exceptional skills in related fields with practical software engineering experience, or equivalent experience