Zipline · 5 hours ago
Autonomy Software Engineer
South San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$200K/yr - $265K/yr
8+ years expZipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move, focusing on solving urgent access challenges through innovative delivery systems. The Autonomy Software Engineer will own the flight-critical runtime for Zipline aircraft, developing and maintaining core components to ensure safety and reliability in autonomous operations.
DeliveryDronesElectric VehicleHome Health CareLogisticsRoboticsSupply Chain Management
Responsibilities
Design the mission/flight manager: build the state machines and orchestration logic that govern mission sequencing, safe-state transitions, and behavior gating under latency and resource constraints
Own fault management end-to-end: implement detection, isolation, mitigation, and recovery (FIMR) for sensors, compute, comms, power, and actuation; ensure graceful degradation and continuity of service
Ship flight-critical Rust/C++: develop and maintain core onboard components with strong observability (health, logs, metrics) and testability (deterministic replay, assertions, invariants)
Prove safety before flight: define success criteria and build the tooling—scenario libraries, SIL/HIL, log-replay harnesses, fault-injection—to validate behaviors across edge cases and long-tail conditions
Integrate across autonomy: partner with planning, perception, and controls to set interfaces, hazards/assumptions, and escalation paths; codify contracts that the runtime enforces
Close the loop with operations: turn fleet telemetry and incident reviews into requirements and fixes; drive MTBF/MTTR improvements and intervention-rate reductions
Lead with systems judgment: write design docs, perform hazard analysis (e.g., FMEA/STPA-style), run design/PR reviews, and mentor engineers on deep-stack ownership
Qualification
Required
8+ years building production software for robotics, aerospace, AV, or other safety-critical embedded systems
Expert in Rust and/or C++ (C as a plus) for real-time, fault-tolerant applications on embedded Linux/RTOS
Demonstrated systems thinking: clear interface design, resource budgeting, and trade-offs under timing/safety/power constraints
Hands-on with SIL/HIL, scenario validation, log replay, and fault injection; you measure reliability, not just functionality
Track record of shipping autonomy features (mission logic, supervision, watchdogs, health monitoring) into noisy, dynamic real-world environments
Comfort in HW/SW co-design: you can reason about sensors, compute, comms, and actuators well enough to make robust software decisions
Strong communication and documentation; you make complex safety decisions legible and auditable
Benefits
Equity compensation
Overtime pay
Discretionary annual or performance bonuses
Sales incentives
Benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance
Paid time off
Company
Zipline
Zipline designs, manufactures, and operates drones to deliver vital medical products.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Zipline has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (54)
2024 (39)
2023 (29)
2022 (20)
2021 (16)
2020 (3)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$971MKey Investors
U.S. Department of StateThe Rise FundKatalyst Ventures
2025-11-25Grant· $150M
2023-04-28Series F· $330M
2021-06-30Series E· $250M
Leadership Team
Keller Rinaudo Cliffton
Co-founder & CEO
Keenan Wyrobek
Founder, CTO and Product Architect
Recent News
felicis.com
2025-12-26
Company data provided by crunchbase