Sensor Hardware Engineering Intern

Job Description

Internship, Sensor Hardware Design Engineer | Tesla

The Tone:
This is an internship at Tesla, located in-person. Tesla is developing state-of-the-art sensing technologies for the Tesla Bot, supporting manipulation and locomotion. This role is crucial as interns are included in projects that are critical to their team’s success, offering an experience to grow technically, professionally, and personally. The program is designed to recognize and develop emerging talent through close collaboration with managers, mentors, and teams.

The TL;DR
• Role: Internship
• Type: Full-time
• Location: In-person
• Pay: $20.00–$55.00 hourly
• Team: Sensing Hardware Team responsible for architecting, designing, validating and integrating state-of-the-art sensing technologies for the Tesla Bot.
• Mission: Serve as the owner of a given sensing system to address issues from development through deployment, contributing to the overall performance of the sensing system and its features for the Tesla Bot.
• Tech Stack: MATLAB, Python, C/C++, EDA tools, Altium (preferred), oscilloscopes, signal generators, power supplies

What You’ll Actually Do
• Design Execution: Drive the design and execution of sensing subsystems through specific generation, collaboration, architecture definition, schematic design, PCB layout, BOM definition, prototyping, validation, qualification, and production phases.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Support sensor design discussions with electrical, software, supply chain, manufacturing, thermal, and mechanical teams, translating these into design documents like system block diagrams and functional requirements.
• Hardware Definition: Use EDA tools to define electrical components and their connectivity, supervising the generation of board design files through all design phases.
• Manufacturing & Qualification: Work with the supply chain team to ensure components meet performance, cost, and manufacturing requirements, generate and execute test plans to de-risk new technologies, and collaborate with manufacturing, test, and suppliers to achieve high-volume mass production.
• System Debugging: Understand and debug hardware and software interactions from prototyping through product launch, while simultaneously managing priorities and supporting multiple projects.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Student currently pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field, with a graduation date between 2026 – 2027. Fundamental knowledge of analog & digital circuits (MOSFETs, op-amps, linear & switching regulators, microcontrollers, digital protocols like SPI & I2C), sensor physics, and statistics.
• Experience: Circuit board design involving specification, architecture, design, simulation, prototype, schematic, layout supervision, validation, and manufacturing; PCB component selection; experience in MATLAB, Python, C/C++ or equivalent tools for modeling and analysis; experience in data visualization and statistical analysis.
• Skills: Understanding of the hardware development process; strong understanding of lab equipment including oscilloscopes, signal generators, and power supplies.
• Bonus: Experience with Altium for circuit board design.