Machine Learning Engineer, Realtime Games, Digital Optimus

What to Expect

As a machine learning engineer on the Digital Optimus Gaming Track, you will develop real-time agents that operate computers at superhuman levels. Your models will learn to browse the web, use professional apps, and play AAA games. This work covers reasoning/planning, video understanding, and multi-agent collaboration, and will directly impact Tesla’s larger robotics and autonomy ecosystem.

You will join a small group of world-class engineers to develop novel architectures, own large training runs, and deliver science fiction. This is a role for those who want to directly advance the frontier.

What You'll Do* Design and own experiments to improve long-horizon agentic gameplay, with a focus on memory and real-time control

• Lead or make core contributions to large-scale training runs, including data mixture, scaling, infrastructure, and algorithms
• Improve the post-training stack, including scalable environments, rewards, and behavior evaluations
• Design architectures with efficient context management, real-time reactivity, and intelligent planning, capable of independently completing tasks over many days.
• Develop rigorous benchmarks and techniques to evaluate agent performance in games and measure transfer across different games, embodiments, and general computer use
• Collaborate across 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

What You'll Bring* Strong technical understanding of all stages of model development, from pre-training to inference

• Demonstrated contributions to at least one large multimodal training run
• Experience with planning and/or memory architectures for long-horizon or agentic systems
• Track record of delivering research from ideation to publication/production
• Hands-on experience with VLMs, VLAs, RL, and large-scale transformers
• A desire to ship models that solve the impossible

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

Expected Compensation

$124,000 - $420,000/annual salary + cash and stock awards + benefits

Pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements dependent on the position offered. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

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.