Electrical Design Engineer Intern - Tactile Sensing

Job Description

Consider before submitting an application:

This position is expected to start August or September 2026 and continue through summer term (ending approximately December 2026) or continuing into Winter/Spring 2027 if available and there is an opportunity to do so. We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time (40 hours/week) 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.

The Internship Recruiting Team is driven by the passion to recognize and develop emerging talent. Our year-round program places the best students in positions where they will grow technically, professionally, and personally through their experience working closely with their manager, mentor, and team. We are dedicated to providing an experience that allows the intern to experience life at Tesla by including them in projects that are critical to their team’s success. 

Join the Tesla Optimus team and help build the future of general-purpose robotics. We are developing a highly capable, safe, and scalable humanoid robot designed to perform useful tasks in factories, homes, and beyond—leveraging Tesla’s expertise in AI, product design, and high-volume manufacturing. Our mission is to create a robot that can understand and interact with the real world at a level that transforms everyday life and unlocks new possibilities for humanity.  

The Tactile Sensing team gives the robot a sense of touch. Closely integrated with the hand structures and kinematic design, our tactile sensors are among the most critical elements for enabling dexterous manipulation—the foundation of a truly useful robot. We develop a range of electromechanical sensing technologies, transforming cutting-edge research into scalable, production-ready solutions at massive volume. 

Job Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and integrate tactile sensing systems that provide the robot with precise, high-resolution touch feedback for dexterous manipulation 
• Derive requirements from first principles to achieve ambitious product-level functionality 
• Design high-density PCBs, flexible circuits, and interconnect solutions tightly integrated with hand structures and dynamic kinematic joints 
• Research and evaluate emerging tactile sensing technologies, then transform cutting-edge concepts into robust, production-ready hardware 
• Perform sensor characterization, calibration, and performance optimization to meet requirements for sensitivity, latency, noise, and repeatability 
• Design analog front-end circuits, signal conditioning, amplification, and filtering for force and tactile sensors to achieve high signal integrity and precise force measurement 
• Develop specifications, test protocols, and quality standards for tactile sensor components and fully integrated assemblies 
• Design custom fixtures, test equipment, and calibration systems to support both prototype development and volume production environments 
• Conduct reliability and environmental testing to validate sensor performance across the robot’s expected lifetime and operating conditions 
• Drive cross-functional teams (electrical, mechanical, firmware, and software/AI) to integrate and validate systems from the component level to full system level

Job Requirements

• Currently pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics or a related field with a graduation date between 2026 - 2027
• Ability to tackle problems and reason using a first principles approach 
• Fundamental knowledge of analog & digital circuits (MOSFETs, op-amps, linear & switching regulators, microcontrollers, digital protocols like SPI & I2C), sensor physics, and statistics 
• Experience with circuit board design (Altium preferred) involving specification, architecture, design, simulation, prototype, schematic, layout supervision, validation, and manufacturing 
• Experience with PCB component selection 
• Experience in MATLAB, Python, C/C++ or equivalent tools for modeling and analysis  
• Experience in data visualization and statistical analysis  
• Understanding of hardware development process  
• Strong understanding with lab equipment (including oscilloscopes, signal generators, power supplies)