Three long-serving executives at Tesla have recently left the company, including finance executive Sendil Palani, software leader Thomas Dmytryk, and Cybercab program manager Victor Nechita.
Palani had one of the longest tenures among the group. He first joined Tesla in January 2009, briefly left in 2011, and returned in May 2014. As vice president of finance, he reported directly to chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja.
In a LinkedIn post reflecting on his time at the company, Palani described the early challenges Tesla faced as it struggled to survive financially.
“Tesla barely survived Christmas 2008. I started a few days later in our Finance team, under an ongoing ‘Tesla Deathwatch’,” Palani wrote. “I slept under my desk in San Carlos, CA at least once, and I wasn’t the only one.”
Software executive Thomas Dmytryk also confirmed his departure after about eleven years at Tesla. Most recently, he served as director of the team responsible for the company’s over-the-air (OTA) update infrastructure, which distributes software updates, bug fixes, and new features to nearly ten million vehicles worldwide without requiring service visits.
Another departure involves Victor Nechita, who served as program manager for Tesla’s Cybercab autonomous vehicle project. His exit comes shortly after Tesla announced the first production Cybercab.
In a LinkedIn post, Nechita said he plans to begin “a new chapter back on the east coast,” reflecting on his time with the company that began as an intern on the Model 3 production line in 2017.
“What a journey it’s been, from interning on the Model 3 production line back in 2017 to becoming the Vehicle Program Manager of Tesla’s first purpose-built AV, the Cybercab,” he wrote.
The exits follow several other recent departures at Tesla, including Benjamin Bate, director of vehicle operations and engineering in Fremont, Cybertruck program head Siddhant Awasthi, and Model Y program manager Emmanuel Lamacchia.