Tesla continues to prepare for Gigafactory Mexico’s construction. It recently posted construction jobs for team leads, including architecture, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineers.
Tesla listed 7 new job openings for team leads that would likely help with Gigafactory Mexico’s construction. All the new positions are located in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León. Listed below are each team lead position and the responsibilities of each role.
Architecture Lead
- Lead the architectural scope of Gigafactory Mexico; responsible for developing architectural design packages for permitting and construction
- Review and develop designs that are cost-effective, constructible, code compliant while meeting Tesla’s quality and schedule requirements.
- Lead the development of Scope of Work, Basis of Design, Scheduling, and Estimating documents. Work with various manufacturing, construction, and facilities stakeholders to understand end-user needs. Manage and oversee the work of consultants.
- Develop process improvements, workflows, and templates to increase design productivity.
- Perform architectural assignments with no direction and no immediate supervision, and work independently as well as collaboratively with others toward design and technical solutions.
- Provide production of design drawings, presentation drawings, and digital models.
- Lead in the execution of construction administration responsibilities, as well as lead in the review and execution of design documents that meet building code.
Mechanical Design Engineer Lead
- Lead interdisciplinary teams on design projects
- Evaluate solutions and present findings to leadership
- Conduct feasibility studies, cost estimations, and equipment procurement
- Direct designers and collaborate with contractors in the field
- Ensure construction documents are followed and perform project closeouts
- Collaborate daily with interdisciplinary project teams
- Perform punch walks and project closeouts
Process Engineering Lead
- Apply engineering fundamentals and a broad set of process engineering tools to solve technical problems and create novel detailed designs for various gas and chemical systems such as refrigerants, cryogenic gases, inert gases, viscous fluids, corrosive fluids, reactive fluids, and flammable fluids.
- Lead front-end and detailed process designs for complex and program-level projects, including scope development, Basis of Design documentation, PFDs, P&IDs, 3D piping system design, pressure drop analysis and Pipe-Flo modeling, pressure relief valve calculations, equipment datasheets, Aspen simulation where required, and supporting Sequence of Operations / Controls Narrative documents.
- Provide technical expertise to the engineering/design team and other groups within Tesla as a subject matter expert (SME)
- Participate in commercial contracting activities, including development of scopes of work, evaluation of bid packages, performing bid analysis, competitive bid leveling, and working with Procurement to prepare commercial subcontracts.
- Participate in field construction and commissioning activities by serving as the point of contact for technical questions and real-time issue resolution, as well as maintaining master piping and equipment specifications.
- Review process design work performed by others on the Process Team to ensure every design maintains the highest level of quality, including P&IDs, plan drawings, and single-line iso’s
- Provide process engineering support to facilities operations and manufacturing teams to help resolve process bottlenecks and other long-standing issues and mentor less experienced engineers on the team.
Civil Engineering Lead
- Promote and protect Tesla’s reputation as a cutting-edge company producing the world’s most exciting cars and shifting the paradigm of personal transportation worldwide.
- Manage multiple projects throughout planning, design, bid, and construction phases. Define and plan project work scope, schedules, budget, and resource requirements.
- Independently develop high-quality civil engineering products, including construction document drawings, specifications, narratives, calculations, and utilize and improve civil design standards and details.
- Review drawings and proposals by vendors, engineers, and architects and drive multi-disciplinary coordination. Present 30%, 60%, [and] 90% model reviews to stakeholders and multi-discipline teams
- Effectively and proactively communicate project needs, changes, and status to both internal and external team members
- Conduct meetings and coordinate permitting agencies to obtain jurisdictional approvals of civil engineering scope.
Structural Engineering Lead
- Lead design for a variety of new and renovation projects from estimating through construction, including providing preliminary estimates and guidance on structural systems
- Evaluate, assign, and manage external consultant teams.
- Coordinate structural design on multidiscipline project teams, including Mechanical, Electrical, Piping/Plumbing (MEP), and architectural professionals.
- Complete knowledge of applicable building codes and structural design standards to conduct structural analysis along with the creation of justifying structural calculations
- Build a competent and effective team, including mentorship of less experienced engineering staff and development of design standards/procedures.
- Provide QA/QC of design drawings and calculations for both internal and external design scopes.
- Ability to articulate complex concepts to non-technical audiences. Present design concepts, including options with tradeoffs to high-level stakeholders to secure cross-functional buyoffs.
Lead Control System Engineer
- Participate in initial equipment conceptual development and carefully balance product specifications, process control requirements, layout complexity, cost, quality, and lead-time limits.
- Work closely with PLC and HMI development to integrate and develop innovative control solutions.
- Participate in continuous improvement activities with key stakeholders and engineering groups.
- Participate in specification and standard creation for instrument types, PLC/PSP Panels, and VFDs
- Participate in design validation practices, including LOPA and HazOp analyses.
- Participate in the execution of start-up and commissioning activities.
- Produce RFQs for release to Vendor and quote technical evaluation.
Electrical Engineering Lead
- Interface and collaborate with multiple discipline engineers
- Ability to multi-task, prioritize, and work in an extremely fast-paced environment.
- Collaborate with various design teams and liaise with manufacturing, construction, and facility stakeholders to understand the project requirements and deliver fully coordinated sets of construction documents.
- Interface and guide external electrical design consultants during project execution to ensure that design and specifications meet the project requirements
- Review electrical drawings, construction/procurement documents, and specifications for MV and LV electrical systems. Typical scope includes normal and emergency power distribution systems, lighting, and grounding systems.
- Attend on-site construction and commissioning activities by serving as the point of contact for technical questions and real-time issue resolution.
- Report to Electrical Project Lead
Tesla appointed Teresa Gutiérrez as the new country manager in Mexico. Following her appointment, Tesla ramped up hiring for sales, service, and delivery jobs. From Tesla’s recent job posts, it seems to be strengthening its positions in Mexico as it prepares to construct the new gigafactory.
Currently, the government of Nuevo León is preparing the surrounding area for Giga Mexico’s construction. It is expanding the Monterrey-Saltillio highway near Tesla Giga Mexico. The local government expects traffic to spike along the highway as Giga Mexico suppliers set up their own bases in Nuevo León.
Apply for Tesla Giga Mexico team lead positions here.
If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via X @Writer_01001101.
News
Tesla reliability rankings skyrocket significantly in latest assessment
“They definitely have their struggles, but by continuing to refine and not make huge changes in their models, they’re able to make more reliable vehicles, and they’ve moved up our rankings.”
Tesla ranked in the Top 10 of the most reliable car companies for 2026, as Consumer Reports’ latest index showed significant jumps from the past two years.
In 2022, Tesla ranked 27th out of 28 brands. Last year, it came in 17th.
🚨🚨 Tesla entered the Top 10 in Consumer Reports’ list of reliable carmakers for the first time
In the past two years, Tesla has ranked 17th in 2024 and 27th out of 28 brands in 2022.
Subaru, BMW, Porsche, Honda, and Toyota were the Top 5 OEMs in the rankings. pic.twitter.com/z216bccVoH
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 4, 2025
However, 2026’s rankings were different. CR‘s rankings officially included Tesla in the Top 10, its best performance to date.
Finishing tenth, the full Top 10 is:
- Subaru
- BMW
- Porsche
- Honda
- Toyota
- Lexus
- Lincoln
- Hyundai
- Acura
- Tesla
Tesla has had steady improvements in its build quality, and its recent refinements of the Model 3 and Model Y have not gone unnoticed.
The publication’s Senior Director of Auto Testing, Jake Fisher, said about Tesla that the company’s ability to work through the rough patches has resulted in better performance (via CNBC):
“They definitely have their struggles, but by continuing to refine and not make huge changes in their models, they’re able to make more reliable vehicles, and they’ve moved up our rankings.”
He continued to say that Tesla’s vehicles have become more reliable over time, and its decision to avoid making any significant changes to its bread-and-butter vehicles has benefited its performance in these rankings.
Legacy automakers tend to go overboard with changes, sometimes keeping a model name but recognizing a change in its “generation.” This leads to constant growing pains, as the changes in design require intense adjustments on the production side of things.
Instead, Tesla’s changes mostly come from a software standpoint, which are delivered through Over-the-Air updates, which improve the vehicle’s functionality or add new features.
Only one Tesla vehicle scored below average in Consumer Reports’ rankings for 2026 was the Cybertruck. Fisher’s belief that Tesla improves its other models over time might prove to be true with Cybertruck in a few years.
He continued:
“They’re definitely improving by keeping with things and refining, but if you look at their 5- to 10-year-old models that are out there, when it comes to reliability, they’re dead last of all the brands. They’re able to improve the reliability if they don’t make major changes.”
Regarding Subaru’s gold medal placing on the podium, Fisher said:
“While Subaru models provide good performance and comfort, they also excel in areas that may not be immediately apparent during a test drive.”
Other notable brands to improve are Rivian, which bumped itself slightly from 31 to 26. Chevrolet finished 24th, GMC ended up 29th, and Ford saw itself in 18th.
Elon Musk
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 texting and driving: we tested it
We decided to test it, and our main objective was to try to determine a more definitive label for when it would allow you to grab your phone and look at it without any nudge from the in-car driver monitoring system.
On Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 would enable texting and driving “depending on [the] context of surrounding traffic.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announces major update with texting and driving on FSD
We decided to test it, and our main objective was to try to determine a more definitive label for when it would allow you to grab your phone and look at it without any nudge from the in-car driver monitoring system.
I’d also like to add that, while Tesla had said back in early November that it hoped to allow this capability within one to two months, I still would not recommend you do it. Even if Tesla or Musk says it will allow you to do so, you should take into account the fact that many laws do not allow you to look at your phone. Be sure to refer to your local regulations surrounding texting and driving, and stay attentive to the road and its surroundings.
The Process
Based on Musk’s post on X, which said the ability to text and drive would be totally dependent on the “context of surrounding traffic,” I decided to try and find three levels of congestion: low, medium, and high.
I also tried as best as I could to always glance up at the road, a natural reaction, but I spent most of my time, during the spans of when it was in my hand, looking at my phone screen. I limited my time looking at the phone screen to a few seconds, five to seven at most. On local roads, I didn’t go over five seconds; once I got to the highway, I ensured the vehicle had no other cars directly in front of me.
Also, at any time I saw a pedestrian, I put my phone down and was fully attentive to the road. I also made sure there were no law enforcement officers around; I am still very aware of the law, which is why I would never do this myself if I were not testing it.
I also limited the testing to no more than one minute per attempt.
I am fully aware that this test might ruffle some feathers. I’m not one to text and drive, and I tried to keep this test as abbreviated as possible while still getting some insight on how often it would require me to look at the road once again.
The Results
Low Congestion Area
I picked a local road close to where I live at a time when I knew there would be very little traffic. I grabbed my phone and looked at it for no more than five seconds before I would glance up at the road to ensure everything was okay:
In full: the Low Congestion Area pic.twitter.com/6DqlBnekPn
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 4, 2025
Looking up at the road was still regular in frequency; I would glance up at the road after hitting that five-second threshold. Then I would look back down.
I had no nudges during this portion of the test. Traffic was far from even a light volume, and other vehicles around were very infrequently seen.
Medium Congestion Area
This area had significantly more traffic and included a stop at a traffic light. I still kept the consecutive time of looking at my phone to about five seconds.
I would quickly glance at the road to ensure everything was okay, then look back down at my phone, spending enough time looking at a post on Instagram, X, or Facebook to determine what it was about, before then peeking at the road again.
There was once again no alert to look at the road, and I started to question whether I was even looking at my phone long enough to get an alert:
In full: the Medium Congestion Area pic.twitter.com/gnhIfBVe6Q
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 4, 2025
Based on past versions of Full Self-Driving, especially dating back to v13, even looking out the window for too long would get me a nudge, and it was about the same amount of time, sometimes more, sometimes less, I would look out of a window to look at a house or a view.
High Congestion Area
I decided to use the highway as a High Congestion Area, and it finally gave me an alert to look at the road.
As strange as it is, I felt more comfortable looking down at my phone for a longer amount of time on the highway, especially considering there is a lower chance of a sudden stop or a dangerous maneuver by another car, especially as I was traveling just 5 MPH over in the left lane.
This is where I finally got an alert from the driver monitoring system, and I immediately put my phone down and returned to looking at the road:
In full: the High Congestion Area pic.twitter.com/K9rIn4ROvm
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 4, 2025
Once I was able to trigger an alert, I considered the testing over with. I think in the future I’d like to try this again with someone else in the car to keep their eyes on the road, but I’m more than aware that we can’t always have company while driving.
My True Thoughts
Although this is apparently enabled based on what was said, I still do not feel totally comfortable with it. I would not ever consider shooting a text or responding to messages because Full Self-Driving is enabled, and there are two reasons for that.
The first is the fact that if an accident were to happen, it would be my fault. Although it would be my fault, people would take it as Tesla’s fault, just based on what media headlines usually are with accidents involving these cars.
Secondly, I am still well aware that it’s against the law to use your phone while driving. In Pennsylvania, we have the Paul Miller Law, which prohibits people from even holding their phones, even at stop lights.
I’d feel much more comfortable using my phone if liability were taken off of me in case of an accident. I trust FSD, but I am still erring on the side of caution, especially considering Tesla’s website still indicates vehicle operators have to remain attentive while using either FSD or Autopilot.
Check out our full test below:
Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announces major update with texting and driving on FSD
“Depending on context of surrounding traffic, yes,” Musk said in regards to FSD v14.2.1 allowing texting and driving.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced a major update with texting and driving capabilities on Full Self-Driving v14.2.1, the company’s latest version of the FSD suite.
Tesla Full Self-Driving, even in its most mature and capable versions, is still a Level 2 autonomous driving suite, meaning it requires attention from the vehicle operator.
You cannot sleep, and you should not take attention away from driving; ultimately, you are still solely responsible for what happens with the car.
The vehicles utilize a cabin-facing camera to enable attention monitoring, and if you take your eyes off the road for too long, you will be admonished and advised to pay attention. After five strikes, FSD and Autopilot will be disabled.
However, Musk announced at the Annual Shareholder Meeting in early November that the company would look at the statistics, but it aimed to allow people to text and drive “within the next month or two.”
He said:
“I am confident that, within the next month or two, we’re gonna look at the safety statistics, but we will allow you to text and drive.”
“I am confident that, within the next month or two, we’re gonna look at the safety statistics, but we will allow you to text and drive.”
Does anyone think v14.3 will enable this? pic.twitter.com/N2yn0SK70M
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 23, 2025
Today, Musk confirmed that the current version of Full Self-Driving, which is FSD v14.2.1, does allow for texting and driving “depending on context of surrounding traffic.”
Depending on context of surrounding traffic, yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 4, 2025
There are some legitimate questions with this capability, especially as laws in all 50 U.S. states specifically prohibit texting and driving. It will be interesting to see the legality of it, because if a police officer sees you texting, they won’t know that you’re on Full Self-Driving, and you’ll likely be pulled over.
Some states prohibit drivers from even holding a phone when the car is in motion.
It is certainly a move toward unsupervised Full Self-Driving operation, but it is worth noting that Musk’s words state it will only allow the vehicle operator to do it depending on the context of surrounding traffic.
He did not outline any specific conditions that FSD would allow a driver to text and drive.
Tesla reliability rankings skyrocket significantly in latest assessment
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 texting and driving: we tested it
