Machine Learning Engineer

Machine learning engineer role within Tesla’s Digital Optimus Gaming Track, focused on building real-time agentic systems that can operate computers, learn tasks across web, apps, and games, and strengthen long-horizon reasoning, video understanding, and multi-agent collaboration. The work supports Tesla’s broader robotics and autonomy ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Design and own experiments that improve long-horizon agentic gameplay, emphasizing memory and real-time control
• Lead and/or make key contributions to large-scale training runs, including data mixture, scaling, infrastructure, and algorithms
• Enhance the post-training stack, including scalable environments, rewards, and behavior evaluations
• Develop architectures for efficient context management, real-time reactivity, and intelligent planning, including systems capable of completing tasks over many days
• Create rigorous benchmarks and evaluation techniques for agent performance in games and to measure transfer across different games, embodiments, and general computer use
• Work with research, infrastructure, and production teams to integrate agent systems into Full Self-Driving (FSD) and physical Optimus
• Iterate rapidly on prototypes, debug complex multimodal ML stacks, and contribute to new research directions

Requirements

• Strong technical understanding across the full model development lifecycle, from pre-training through inference
• Demonstrated contributions to at least one large multimodal training run
• Experience applying planning and/or memory architectures for long-horizon or agentic systems
• A track record of moving research from ideation to publication and/or production
• Hands-on experience with VLMs, VLAs, RL, and large-scale transformers
• Commitment to shipping models that solve difficult, high-impact problems

Technologies

• VLMs
• VLAs
• RL
• Large-scale transformers

What to Expect

• Develop real-time agents that operate computers at superhuman performance levels
• Build models that browse the web, use professional apps, and play AAA games
• Contribute to reasoning and planning, video understanding, and multi-agent collaboration with direct relevance to Tesla’s robotics and autonomy ecosystem
• Join a small group of engineers working on novel architectures, owning large training runs, and delivering research outcomes
• Work at the frontier on systems that advance state-of-the-art capabilities

Compensation

USD 124,000 - 420,000 per year + cash and stock awards and benefits. Pay may vary based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and market location. The total compensation package may also include other elements depending on the position offered; details will be provided with an employment offer.

Benefits

• Medical plans (options with $0 payroll deduction)
• Family-building, fertility, adoption, and surrogacy benefits
• Dental (including orthodontic coverage) and vision plans (options with $0 paycheck contribution)
• Company Paid 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 with a 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: 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

Location

Palo Alto, CA (onsite)