Electric vehicles
10 Tesla engineering leaders
These ten engineering directors and senior directors lead or have led engineering teams at Tesla, across software, Autopilot, energy products, powertrain, and reliability and test. A reader can learn from them how engineering teams are organized and managed at Tesla and how hardware and software programs are validated.
Professionals to explore
01—10Jan Brückner
LinkedInExperience: Director Powertrain Engineering Europe · Tesla
Director Powertrain Engineering Europe at Tesla since May 2026 and Managing Director Tesla Engineering Germany GmbH since January 2026. Earlier Tesla roles include Sr. Manager Cell Development (2021–2022) and Sr. Manager Powertrain Engineering Europe (2022–2026); before Tesla he was Head of Test & Validation at Northvolt Zwei GmbH & Co. KG (2020–2021).
Jeremy He
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering · Tesla
Director of Engineering at Tesla since February 2021, after serving there as Senior Manager System Engineering (2015–2021). The profile describes responsibility for systems architecture and modeling, firmware integration and performance validation, and field quality and failure analysis for Tesla's Energy Products business. Before Tesla he held engineering roles at Parker Hannifin (2007–2015).
Marcos Guerlando Guerlando
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering And Operations · Tesla
Director of Engineering And Operations at Tesla in San Francisco since July 2023, after serving there as Sr. Engineering Manager (2017–2021) and Director of Engineering (2021–2023). Before Tesla he was Engineering Manager at Gardner Denver (2006–2011) and at Halliburton (2011–2017).
Matthew You
LinkedInExperience: Director, Optimus (Tesla Bot) & Autopilot Engineering · Tesla
Director, Optimus (Tesla Bot) & Autopilot Engineering at Tesla since June 2022, after serving there as Staff Software Engineer (2015–2017), Engineering Manager (2017–2018), Senior Engineering Manager (2018–2020) and Director of Software Engineering (2020–2022).
Phil Duan
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering, Autopilot · Tesla
Director of Engineering, Autopilot at Tesla since January 2026, where the profile says he leads AI development for FSD and Robotaxi. Earlier Autopilot roles at Tesla include Staff Software Engineer (2018–2019 and 2020–2022), Sr. Staff Software Engineer (2022–2025) and Principal Software Engineer (2025).
Robert Kang
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Engineering · Tesla
Former Senior Director of Engineering at Tesla (2020–2024), after serving there as Engineering Manager (2013–2020). Before Tesla he was Software Engineer (2002–2007) and Senior Software Engineer (2007–2012) at Qualcomm, where the profile says he helped develop mobile chipsets and modems; it links his Tesla work to EV software, battery systems and autonomous driving technologies.
Silvio Brugada
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering · Tesla
Director of Engineering at Tesla since February 2019, after Tesla roles as Staff Software Engineer (2013–2015), Engineering Manager -- Software Platforms (2015–2016), Engineering Manager -- Navigation and Software Platforms (2016–2017) and Senior Engineering Manager -- Navigation, Software, and Firmware Platforms (2017–2019). The profile's highlights mention Sentry Mode and navigation and routing.
Wenjia Wang
LinkedInExperience: Sr. Director of Engineering · Tesla
Sr. Director of Engineering at Tesla since December 2023, after serving there as Engineering Manager (2014–2016), Senior Engineering Manager (2016–2019) and Engineering Director (2019–2023). Before Tesla the role was Smart Transportation Department Director at Hitachi (China) R&D Corporation (2011–2013). The profile's highlights mention powertrain performance modeling, controls, energy storage and a materials engineering team.
Wes Morrill
LinkedInExperience: Sr. Director Engineering - Reliability, Test, and Analysis · Tesla
Sr. Director Engineering - Reliability, Test, and Analysis at Tesla since September 2024 and Cybertruck Lead Engineer since November 2021. Earlier Tesla roles include Engineering Manager - Hardware Development Test Lab (2015–2017), Senior Engineering Manager - Reliability and Test Engineering (2017–2019) and Director Engineering - Hardware Development Reliability, Test and Analysis (2019–2024).
Yuval Joseph
LinkedInExperience: Director of Software Engineering · Tesla
Director of Software Engineering at Tesla since June 2024; the headline describes the role as Director, Energy and Charging Software. Earlier Tesla roles include SW Manager Energy Control Applications (2018–2019), Senior Software Engineering Manager (2019–2021) and Head of Software and Firmware Engineering, Energy & Charging (2021–2024).
Choose the right perspective
Pick the person whose area matches your question, since Autopilot software, energy products, powertrain and vehicle reliability testing are run by different teams. Also check whether their Tesla role is current or former and when they held it, because practices at a fast-growing company change over time.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How were your engineering teams structured and staffed, and how did you decide when to split or merge teams as programs grew?
- 02How did you balance speed and validation rigor when a design change had to reach production quickly?
- 03What did you learn about hiring and developing engineering managers from within the team?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
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