Internship

Job Description

Consider before submitting an application:  

This position is expected to start around August or September 2025 and continue through the Fall term (ending approximately December 2025) or continuing into Winter/Spring 2026 if available and there is an opportunity to do so. We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time and on-site, for most internships. Our internship program is for students who are actively enrolled in an academic program. Recent graduates seeking employment after graduation and not returning to school should apply for full-time positions, not internships.   

International Students: If your work authorization is through CPT, please consult your school on your ability to work 40 hours per week before applying. You must be able to work 40 hours per week on-site. Many students will be limited to part-time during the academic year.   

About the Team

As an Intern on the Thermal Vehicle Controls team, you will design, simulate, and help implement and calibrate sophisticated algorithms to manage thermal performance of the powertrain, battery-packs, heat pump, and cabin HVAC systems in Tesla’s vehicles. You will be challenged by a wide range of problems like optimal thermal controls of batteries for supercharging, process control for the Tesla heat pump, thermal management of drive systems and power electronics, and even that of occupants through climate control. 

Job Responsibilities

• Research and develop estimation and control algorithms for thermal management of the cabin HVAC, powertrain, and heat pump, to deliver the best customer-experience in terms of performance, range, NVH, and cabin comfort 
• Build numerical system models and use them to develop and refine control strategies and drive their implementation 
• Work closely with Firmware, Integration, and Hardware Engineers to implement, test, and debug these algorithms on vehicle 
• Monitor, investigate, and close the loop on fleet performance and customer feedback of thermal controls performance 
• Advance the state-of-the-art in Thermal and HVAC Control systems 

Job Requirements

• Strong fundamentals of heat-transfer and thermodynamics, devices like pumps, radiators, refrigerant systems, etc. 
• Background in dynamic system modeling, linear systems analysis, observers and state-estimation, and first principles design and analysis of control systems 
• Demonstrated ability to ground-up design, analyze, and implement control systems in real-world applications 
• Comfort working in actual vehicles and/or test-benches to test/refine controller designs 
• Basic proficiency with Embedded Firmware development in C/C++ is a plus
• Basic proficiency working with data analytics distributed workloads (SQL, Spark, python) is a plus 
• Pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or related field, with a graduation date between December 2025 – May 2026