Staff Distributed Systems Engineer, Account Master

Distributed Systems ExpertAccount Master is Tesla's data record for customers and their assets - think demographics, driver & rider profiles, preferences, and the Powerwall linked to your account. Nearly every surface at Tesla reads from that record, so when the data's off, customers lose access to what should be theirs. This gets increasingly complex when a product gets delivered, serviced, shared, or transferred.

The work now is to keep that data honest as volume heads toward 50,000 QPS and the mix of vehicles, energy systems, and access relationships on an account expands. We're looking for a distributed systems expert to own this platform end to end: the architecture across services, the contracts other teams build against, and the operational bar the system has to clear.ResponsibilitiesSet the multi-year architecture for how MySQL, ClickHouse, and Elasticsearch stay consistent as the schema and traffic evolveOwn the public data contract that downstream products across Tesla depend on — API shape, event schemas, and compatibility guaranteesDesign and evolve the Kafka change-propagation model so downstream products see changes in order, and can be replayed or backfilled without double-applyingDrive the platform toward 50,000 QPS — partitioning, backpressure, and failure handling for both single-asset and multi-asset accountsDefine the SLO framework for availability, latency, and correctness that this team and its partners operate against, and the measurement behind it (reconciliation lag, divergence rate, event-loss detection)Lead cross-team design reviews for changes that touch customer or asset data, and unblock other teams' designs before they hit productionOwn security, authorization, and audit for customer and asset data, including how AI agent workflows written in Python access it. This data is in scope for GDPR, CCPA, and similar privacy lawsCarry the pager, respond to alerts, and eliminate recurring incidents at the class level, not one at a timeRaise the team's bar for testing retries, duplicate events, and replay; mentor senior engineers on the team and grow the technical benchWrite the design docs that shape how this platform evolves, and review the ones that touch itRequirements10+ years building backend systems, including prior production ownership of a distributed system at comparable scale — tens of thousands of QPS, cross-store consistency, high-cardinality PIIStrong Go programming ability; working Python is a plus for the AI-agent surfaceDeep Kafka experience: ordering, consumer failure, retries, idempotency, and replayMySQL, plus a search or analytical store (Elasticsearch or ClickHouse)Track record of driving technical decisions across multiple teams and shipping the outcomeDeep judgment on schema evolution, backward compatibility, and migration risk on live systems that other products depend on.

CDC, outbox, or equivalent patterns in productionFamiliarity with a large-scale batch or reconciliation framework — Spark preferredExperience defining SLOs and correctness measurement, not just meeting themReal operational experience (monitoring, alerting, on-call, incident response) with a history of eliminating recurring incident classesAbility to write design docs partner teams can build against, and to run the reviews that shape theirsCompensation & BenefitsBenefitsAlong 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 deductionFamily-building, fertility, adoption and surrogacy benefitsDental (including orthodontic coverage) and vision plans, both have options with a $0 paycheck contributionCompany Paid (Health Savings Accounts) HSA Contribution when enrolled in the High-Deductible medical plan with HSAHealthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)401(k) with employer match, Employee Stock Purchase Plans, and other financial benefitsCompany paid Basic Life, AD&DShort-term and long-term disability insurance (90 day waiting period)Employee Assistance ProgramSick and Vacation time (Flex time for salary positions, Accrued hours for Hourly positions), and Paid HolidaysBack-up childcare and parenting support resourcesVoluntary benefits to include: critical illness, hospital indemnity, accident insurance, theft & legal services, and pet insuranceWeight Loss and Tobacco Cessation ProgramsTesla Babies programCommuter benefitsEmployee discounts and perks programExpected Compensation$200,000 - $300,000/annual salary + cash and stock awards + benefitsPay 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.