What to Expect
This team at Tesla Manufacturing Brandenburg in Grünheide builds the autonomy that lets a reach truck operate unmanned across our warehouse operations. We own the full on-vehicle stack: perception and vision-based localization, state estimation and mapping, motion planning and the behaviour layer that sequences navigation and load handling, the real-time interfaces to the vehicle's motion and safety systems, low-latency teleoperation for supervised recovery, and integration with the WMS and FMS that dispatch and track the work. Our remit runs from that software and systems architecture through to a machine that is functionally safe, CE-certified, and proven from a first pilot cell to dependable, everyday operation.
The autonomy stack is where this vehicle becomes a robot, and it is the part of the work with the least room for a wrong architectural call. We are looking for one senior engineer to own that architecture, define the contracts between our software and the vehicle it runs on, and lead the engineering team as the robot moves from pilot to production.
Role mission
You will own the architecture of the autonomy stack and act as the technical lead of the robotics team. This is a hands-on individual-contributor role rather than a people-management one: you set the technical direction, make the hard design calls, and carry the other engineers with you, while the Program Lead looks after the organisational side.
- Define the system architecture and the interface contracts between the autonomy compute, the vehicle control unit, the safety controller, and the WMS/FMS.
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Own localization and mapping, fusing vision-based SLAM with fiducial (QR) landmarks and CAD priors so that pose estimation stays accurate and drift-bounded down long, repetitive aisles and across shift-to-shift change.
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Own motion planning and the behaviour and task layer that sequences aisle navigation, docking, and pallet handling.
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Design the authority handoff between autonomous control and teleoperation, and the safe states around it, together with the Safety Engineer.
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Establish pragmatic CI, simulation, and OTA/release practices that a lean team can sustain.
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Set technical direction, run design and code review, mentor the engineers, and keep the team unblocked on the decisions that matter.
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Own the software side of interface control with the vehicle's manufacturer, including bus protocols, timing, and fault and safe-state semantics.
What You'll Bring
- Around eight years or more building autonomy or robotics software, including at least one multi-subsystem robot whose architecture you owned and took to a pilot or into production.
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Real experience leading engineers technically and being accountable for how a program turns out.
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Deep C and C++ and fluent Python, at home on Linux and comfortable with the constraints of real-time Linux.
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Fluency with ROS 2 or a comparable robotics framework.
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A track record of taking vision-based localization and SLAM from the lab into reliable field operation, including integrating third-party perception or SLAM components where it makes sense.
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Fluency with real-time vehicle interfaces such as CAN and CAN-FD and industrial Ethernet, and a sound instinct for the boundary between safety-rated and non-safety software.
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Strong written and spoken English, the language the team works in.
Nice to have
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Teleoperation or other low-latency remote-operation systems.
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Having taken robots into regulated or industrial settings that required CE marking.
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A background in warehouse automation, AGVs, or AMRs.
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A comfortable, AI-native way of working, where you already use modern AI coding assistants day to day, lean on evaluations to keep them honest, and help the team raise its standards for these tools.
You work most closely with the Controls Engineer on the vehicle and safety interfaces, and with the Safety Engineer on the authority handoff between autonomy and remote control. You are the technical lead for the perception and integration engineer, and you support the field engineer during on-vehicle bring-up. Outside the team, you are the main technical point of contact with the vehicle's manufacturer.
Outcomes in first 6-12 months
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The system architecture and interface contracts with the vehicle and the safety controller are baselined early, so the team builds against them without churn.
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The full perception, localization, planning, and control loop is running on the vehicle and hardening from the pilot cell toward live aisles.
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The stack, the release process, and the team are ready to put the first vehicle into production use.
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.
