What To Expect
Consider before submitting an application:  

This position is expected to start May 2026 and continue through summer term (ending approximately August 2026 or later, if available). We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time (40 hours/week) and on-site, for most internships. Our internship program is for students who are actively enrolled in an academic program. Recent graduates seeking employment after graduation and not returning to school should apply for full-time positions, not internships.

International Students: If your work authorization is through CPT, please consult your school on your ability to work 40 hours per week before applying. You must be able to work 40 hours per week on-site. Many students will be limited to part-time during the academic year.

Internship Programs at Tesla

The Internship Recruiting Team is driven by the passion to recognize emerging talent. Our year-round program places the best students in positions that they will grow both technically and personally through their experience working closely with their Manager, Mentor, and team. We are dedicated to providing an experience that allows for the intern to experience life at Tesla by giving them ownership over projects that are critical to their team’s success.

Locations: Palo Alto, CA

The Team

Data is deeply embedded in the product and engineering culture at Tesla. We rely on data – lots of it – to improve autopilot, to optimize hardware designs, to proactively detect faults, and to optimize load on the electrical grid. We collect massive amounts of IoT data, provide storage, access, and high-volume processing capabilities. Our stack is built on top of open-source technologies, including Spark, Trino, Kafka and Kubernetes. We're a small but fast-growing team which is building and operating the big data platform for the company.

We're looking for a talented engineering intern to help deliver new and improved big data services and infrastructure. Your work will affect many hundreds of Tesla engineers daily, as well as improving the functionality of our cars, chargers, and batteries worldwide.

What You'll Do

Employ and improve industry-leading, scalable, distributed open-source technologies

Build back-end systems from scratch that are capable of handling trillion+ events daily

Facilitate operation of highly available distributed systems at scale and across multiple locations

Facilitate others in deploying, operating, and extending upon your clean, tested code

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

What You'll Bring

Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science or a related field with a gradation date between 2026 - 2027

Proficiency in Java , Python or Scala

Experience with cloud infrastructure such as AWS

DevOps/SRE abilities a huge plus

Strong programming fundamentals, particularly in data structures, concurrency, and Java

Understanding of a complex distributed system, such as Kafka, Spark, HBase or ElasticSearch is a plus

Previous experience building and optimizing highly available, scalable, distributed back-end services also a plus

Benefits
Compensation and Benefits
As a full-time Tesla Intern, you will be eligible for:

Medical plans > plan options with $0 payroll deduction

Family-building, fertility, adoption and surrogacy benefits

Dental (including orthodontic coverage) and vision plans. Both have an option with a $0 payroll contribution

Company Paid (Health Savings Account) HSA Contribution when enrolled in the High Deductible Medical Plan with HSA

Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)

401(k), Employee Stock Purchase Plans, and other financial benefits

Company Paid Basic Life, AD&D, and short-term disability insurance (90 day waiting period)

Employee Assistance Program

Sick and Vacation time (Flex time for salary 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

Commuter benefits

Employee discounts and perks program

Expected Compensation

$40.00 - $56.00/hour + 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.

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