Staff Software Development Engineer, AI Hardware

What to Expect

The AI Hardware Firmware team is responsible for architecting and developing bare-metal and RTOS-based firmware that brings Tesla’s custom silicon to life. We own the full firmware stack — from immutable ROM code etched directly into silicon, through secure bootloaders, real-time operating systems, and early Linux bring-up. Our work sits at the critical intersection of hardware and software, where safety, security, and reliability are non-negotiable. Our firmware powers the most exciting products on the planet: Full Self-Driving in millions of vehicles, advanced neural networks in Optimus humanoid robots, and the massive AI inference and training clusters accelerating Tesla’s (and the world’s) path to sustainable energy and autonomy.

As a Staff Software Development Engineer on this team, you will help shape the safety, security, and reliability foundations for Tesla’s next-generation system-on-chip platforms. You will operate across the entire silicon lifecycle — from pre-silicon emulation and FPGA validation to high-volume production bring-up and deployment at scale. You will architect and implement mission-critical systems including secure boot flows, over-the-air firmware updates, failover mechanisms, low-latency RTOS scheduling, and tightly coupled peripheral management. You will collaborate closely with ASIC, hardware, and architecture teams on co-design, defining register interfaces, memory maps, and firmware requirements from the earliest stages of chip definition. This is a high-impact staff-level role for an exceptional engineer who thrives on solving the hardest problems in safety-critical embedded systems and wants to see their code running in vehicles on the road, robots in factories, and AI superclusters at unprecedented scale.

What You'll Do

• Own firmware architecture for critical SoC subsystems; author high-quality design documents and lead technical design reviews
• Design and implement secure boot, hardware root-of-trust, firmware update mechanisms, and robust failover architectures
• Develop high-reliability, safety-critical firmware in C, C++, and Rust for bare-metal and RTOS environments, meeting the strictest functional safety and security standards
• Drive hardware/firmware co-design efforts with ASIC and hardware teams — define register interfaces, memory maps, interrupts, and performance requirements during early chip architecture
• Own firmware through the complete silicon lifecycle: pre-silicon simulation/emulation, FPGA bring-up, first silicon validation, and high-volume production flows
• Debug complex issues at the hardware level using JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and other low-level tools
• Architect and develop factory test, provisioning, calibration, and diagnostic firmware for Tesla’s high-volume manufacturing lines
• Mentor senior and staff firmware engineers, raise the bar on code quality, testing, and engineering excellence across the team
• Champion test-driven development, automated testing infrastructure, and continuous improvement of our firmware validation suites
• Leverage and champion state-of-the-art AI tooling (including Grok and others) to dramatically accelerate development velocity, improve code quality, and increase team productivity

What You'll Bring

• 6+ years of deep proficiency writing production firmware in C for bare-metal or RTOS environments, including strong low-level experience with ARM and/or RISC-V architectures (register-level programming, MMU, caches, exceptions, etc.)
• Hands-on experience with at least one RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, ThreadX, or similar) and low-level subsystems such as cryptography, filesystems, device drivers, secure boot, and firmware update mechanisms
• Practical experience with functional safety standards (ISO 26262, IEC 61508), security standards (FIPS 140, Common Criteria), and debugging embedded systems at the hardware level (JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers)
• Direct experience taking silicon designs from pre-silicon emulation/FPGA through bring-up, validation, and high-volume production
• Proficiency developing embedded systems in Rust preferred, familiarity with MISRA C or equivalent safety-critical coding standards, and experience with embedded communication protocols (CAN, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, MIPI, PCIe, etc.)
• Experience with factory test, provisioning, calibration firmware, serialization frameworks (protocol buffers, CBOR, etc.), open source embedded/firmware contributions, and demonstrated use of modern AI tools (Grok, Claude, Copilot, etc.) preferred
• Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent in experience and evidence of exceptional ability

Compensation and Benefits

Benefits

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

Tesla is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

Tesla is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.