Internship, Controls & Software Automation Engineer, Cell Manufacturing (Fall 2026)

What You'll Do

• Own review of vendor electrical controls designs and against in-house Tesla electrical and safety standards, best practices and requirements.
• Engineers regularly troubleshoot and solve problems and implement continuous improvement and optimization projects.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to ensure controls systems meet functional and regulatory standards.
• Select appropriate circuit protectors, wire and cable, sensors, safety hardware, PLC hardware, remote I/O, variable frequency drives (VFDs), servo systems, and key electrical control components.
• Knowledge of Electrical Standards (NFPA 79, IEC 60204-1, UL508A).
• Familiarity with Allen Bradley, Beckhoff, Omron, Siemens, B&R, and/or Mitsubishi.
• Work with a cross-functional engineering team supporting critical Cell Manufacturing development projects.
• Develop code that is structured, documented, maintainable, and reusable.
• Interface equipment with Tesla production databases.
• Work with our controls development team on spearheading and proving, developing, integrating and automating the overall process of Virtual Commissioning.
• Develop 3D/2D simulation models of automated manufacturing processes and equipment.
• Validate PLC (programmable logic controller), HMI (human machine interface) programs, robot programs and Tesla Manufacturing Execution System (MES) that collect data into production databases.
• Assist in maintaining and developing new features for our production critical industrial vision processing software.
• Designed to capture, analyze, and store images of battery cells within milliseconds, operating 24/7 and controlling hundreds of industrial cameras across the cell manufacturing production line.

What You'll Bring

• Currently pursuing a degree in Engineering, preferably Mechatronics, Computer Science, Electrical or a related field.
• Basic understanding designing electrical control panels, controls system wiring and instrumentation.
• Experience with software development: GitHub, Splunk & Jira and working with industrial machine vision cameras.
• Experience with tools for virtual commissioning (iPhyics, Process Simulate, WinMOD, Maplesim, EMulate3D, EKS, etc.) is preferred.
• Familiarity coding Microcontrollers or PLCs in major programming languages such as C/C++, C#, Go, Cpp, Java, Python, Swift, Structured Text, and/or Ladder Logic.
• Experience in web development languages and frameworks with JavaScript, React, Node, HTML5, CSS3, and JSON best-practices.
• Experience with 3D CAD design software such as CATIA or SOLIDWORKS is preferred.
• Robust understanding of software fundamentals including software design, Git, scripting, CI/CD, algorithms, basic data structures, code modularity, and maintainability.
• Demonstrate a good understanding of testing concepts including white box and black box testing, regression testing, unit testing, and performance testing.

Benefits

• Medical plans > plan options with $0 payroll deduction.
• 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.
• 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.
• Tesla employee discounts and perks program.