TSLA Tesla Inc

A few weeks ago, Elon Musk put out a call on Twitter for "hard-core software engineers" to work on Tesla Motors Inc.'s autonomous car program. The company's inbox was flooded.

While Mr. Musk was only looking for 100 prospects, he may want to keep the other applicants within ear shot. The electric-car company, which recently released its first sport-utility vehicle and will soon open a battery factory in Nevada, is looking to add thousands of employees in coming years just as an auto industry showdown for tech talent is brewing.

Tesla isn't the only player in town. The 12-year-old company is tussling with a growing mass of auto makers crowding into California looking for people capable of helping develop software and other components needed to power electric or autonomous vehicles.

Several startups, including Chinese-backed Faraday Future Inc., Karma Automotive Inc. and Atieva Inc., have been luring people away from Tesla for their own electric-car ventures.

At the same time, established industry heavyweights are expanding offices in Silicon Valley, investing in new ventures to better combat Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google as those companies develop automobiles.

Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Co. are among traditional auto makers placing big bets in Tesla's backyard.

Palo Alto-based Tesla, which grew to 14,000 employees from just 899 at the end of 2010, plans to add 4,500 more workers in California alone during the next four years, according to terms of a $15 million tax credit awarded this year. Tesla currently has 1,600 open positions and is aggressively courting engineers for its autonomous car efforts, known as Autopilot.

Because the auto maker's business model is built on explosive growth forecasts through the end of the decade, Mr. Musk needs to add head count faster than a typical auto maker with small volumes would.

Addressing his 3.1 million followers on Twitter, Mr. Musk said "no prior experience with cars required. Please include code sample or link to your work." He then added, "I will be interviewing people personally and Autopilot reports directly to me. This is a super high priority."

A Tesla spokeswoman said "we're a career destination for extremely talented hard-core software engineers, and Elon's tweet opened the gate to a new wave of exceptional candidates."

Building on Mr. Musk's fame may be a more cost-effective strategy than relying on outside firms. Fees paid to placement agencies for software engineers in the Bay Area have doubled to around $30,000 to $40,000 per employee in the past two years, said Paul Harty, president of Seven Step RPO, a recruiting outsourcing company.

Tesla's $30 billion stock market valuation reflects Wall Street's optimism about its growth prospects, but the company walks a financial tightrope as it continues to lose money and burns cash on multiple future product programs.

The company isn't only outgrowing its pocketbook. Tesla is sprawling over the Bay Area due to explosive employment growth and its Palo Alto headquarters is proving to be too small.

There is a valet to park employee cars as the small parking lot at the headquarters is always full.

These days, many of the office and engineering functions are performed in Fremont at its factory.

Large sections of the plant have been taken over by offices and the parking area at the plant, which was once co-owned by Toyota Corp. and General Motors Co., is completely full.

"I think we will be building a consolidated headquarters at some point in the future," Mr. Musk said in September. He said the company would remain in California, but the location of a new headquarters hadn't been determined.

In all, Tesla has spread over eight buildings in the Bay Area. Recently, it moved into a former solar panel manufacturing center formerly owned by Solyndra LLC, which fell into bankruptcy in 2011 after getting a U.S. Department of Energy loan.

Tesla held a party in the building to unveil its Model X sport-utility vehicle earlier this year.

Tesla's employment relative to vehicle production is relatively high compared with other luxury car makers. Jaguar Land Rover, the luxury auto maker owned by Tata Motors Ltd., is on pace to sell about 500,000 vehicles in 2015 and has 36,000 employees, or 13.8 vehicles per employee.

Tesla is on pace for 52,000 sales with 14,000 workers, or about 3.7 cars per worker.

The lower ratio of employees to production is partially because the company is still scaling up and planning for a much higher volume, and because Tesla does many functions in-house.

For instance, Tesla recently replaced a seat supplier for the Model X with an in-house production staff, something that is exceptionally rare in the auto industry.

Write to Mike Ramsey at michael.ramsey@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 28, 2015 20:25 ET (01:25 GMT)

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