Internship, Site Controller Software Engineer, Energy Engineering (Winter/Spring 2027)

What to Expect

Consider before submitting an application:

This position is expected to start January 2027 and continue through the entire Winter/Spring term (i.e through April/May 2026) or into Summer 2027 if available. We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time (40 hours/week) and on-site, for most internships.

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

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

About the Team:

Join the team behind the world's largest fleet of smart energy storage systems and help build the heart and soul of Tesla's Energy products. We develop the applications that run on the Tesla Site Controller - the brain that orchestrates every asset on an industrial site: solar, batteries, generators, vehicle chargers, power meters, and more. The Site Controller also talks to the Tesla cloud and feeds the data behind our customer-facing applications. As an intern on this team, you won't be on the sidelines: you'll write real code that ships, debug real systems, and deliver features that let customers power entire communities with renewable energy. If you're eager to take on hard problems, learn from engineers at the top of their field, and see your work run in the field, we want you on the team.

What You’ll Do

• Develop high-quality, testable software in Golang and Rust for a server-class embedded Linux platform
• Contribute to system architecture and design discussions, and turn ideas into working features
• Help evaluate and improve customer interfaces and telemetry collection
• Investigate issues, reproduce them, and work alongside senior engineers to devise solution paths
• Collaborate with validation teams to build and run integration test strategies
• Write unit tests and learn how we practice test-driven development at scale

What You’ll Bring

• Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• Programming experience in one or more systems/application languages — Golang, Rust, C++, or similar (coursework, personal projects, prior internships, or research all count)
• Familiarity with Linux and comfort working from the command line
• Exposure to core CS concepts: concurrency or multi-threading, networking (TCP/IP, sockets), and object-oriented or systems design — through classes, projects, or self-study
• A genuine eagerness to learn embedded systems and an ever-evolving codebase
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate across teams
• Comfort multitasking, prioritizing, and working in a fast-paced environment​
• Experience with embedded Linux, real-time systems, or hardware-adjacent software
• Familiarity with messaging or industrial protocols such as NATS, MQTT, or OPC UA
• A track record of test-driven development or writing meaningful unit test
• Personal projects, hackathons, or open-source contributions you're proud to talk about