Software Engineer - Generalist, Simulation

Job Description

Full autonomy is of critical importance to Tesla's mission. As a member of TeslaSI’s Simulation team, you will be in a unique position to accelerate the pace at which Autopilot improves over time. The main ways in which the simulation team realizes this is through building tools that enable TeslaSI developers to perform virtual test drives instead of real ones, testing all Autopilot software releases for regressive behavior and generating synthetic data sets for neural network training.  

The foundation on which we build these elements is our simulation environment. We develop photorealistic worlds for our virtual car to drive in, enabling our developers to iterate faster and rely less on real-world testing. We strive for perfect correlation to real-world vehicle behavior and work with TeslaSI Software Engineers to improve both Autopilot and the simulator over time. Our group is a cross-disciplinary team with people from various backgrounds and fields of expertise, like CS generalists, mechanical engineers, game developers, and computer graphics artists. As a member on this team, you will be challenged to learn about all these different disciplines and use your own expertise to further improve the scope and usability of our tools. 

As a Simulation Engineer, you will contribute to the development of TeslaSI simulation by enabling and supporting the creation of photo realistic 3D scenes that can accurately model the driving experience in a wide range of locales and conditions. 

Job Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development of a modular, scalable simulation platform 

• Work with all members of the TeslaSI team to understand the simulation requirements and develop tools to meet those needs 

• Enhance the realism and performance of our in-house GPU ray tracer 

• Implement algorithms enabling real-time rendering of realistic scenes with complex lighting environments 

• Improve existing tools and features that enable the reproduction in Autopilot behavior in simulation 

Job Requirements

• Extensive knowledge of light transport, appearance models, and color science  

• Experience researching, developing, and optimizing state of the art ray tracing techniques such as next even estimation (NEE), reservoir importance sampling (RIS), and multiple importance sampling (MIS) 

• Knowledge of modern graphics APIs and shader languages  

• Experience working with training frameworks and understanding of modern machine learning concepts 

• Experience with optimization across CPU and GPU  

• Confidence with modern C++  

• Experience with modern physically based rendering engines  

• Excellent mathematics skills, including proficiency with linear algebra, calculus, and probability  

• Deep understanding of tradeoffs in engine performance, scalability, and maintainability  

• Experience with supporting tools, such as exporters, terrain editors, and GPU debuggers