Senior Embedded Software Engineer - Avionics SW
Zipline · San Francisco, United States · 2d ago
About Zipline
Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products.
Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations.
Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe.
We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds.
About You and The Role
You will have experience in implementing proven reliable and deterministic software components for hardware peripherals for use in robotics or autonomous applications, particularly in systems deployed at scale. The role sits at the hardware/software boundary: you will be responsible for flight- and safety-critical embedded software running on an embedded Linux system, and for the diagnostics and validation infrastructure that proves the performance and reliability of that software in the field. Your work directly affects aircraft reliability, mission completion rate, and field-maintenance load across a distributed fleet.
What You'll Do
- Own one or more end-to-end avionics subsystems, such as GNSS, Cellular, IMU and be the primary technical owner for design, implementation, and production readiness.
- Deliver and maintain flight- and safety-critical code on embedded Linux: drivers, device bring-up, real-time data interfaces, fault management, and graceful degradation logic.
- Define and ship measurable reliability and observability outcomes (in-field fault rates, test coverage targets). Instrument systems so flight-data can be used to detect regressions and prioritize fixes.
- Lead hardware-in-the-loop, bench, and field validation for changes you introduce; partner with systems, hardware, test engineering, and operations to create repeatable test plans and failure-insertion exercises.
- Build and extend tooling for deterministic test, logging, post-flight analysis, and automated regression tests to accelerate safe deployments across the fleet.
- Triage and resolve high-severity field incidents: drive RCA, implement fixes, and own follow-through until fleet metrics demonstrate resolution.
- Collaborate closely with avionics hardware, systems engineering, manufacturing, and flight operations to set integration boundaries, certification inputs, and release criteria for software changes.
What You'll Bring
- Must-have technical skills: substantial systems-level experience shipping embedded production code in C++ or Rust; Experience with embedded Linux environments is required; experience with bare-metal or RTOS environments is nice to have.
- Production & safety experience: proven track record deploying and operating embedded software in safety- or mission-critical systems (aviation, robotics, industrial controls, or similar). Experience with fault management, deterministic real-time requirements, and validation strategies is required.
- Debugging & hardware bring-up: demonstrated ability to read schematics, bring up peripherals from datasheets, and debug hardware/software interaction using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, and in-field telemetry.
- Ownership & outcomes: history of owning subsystem delivery end-to-end, shipping repeatable test suites, and meeting quantified reliability targets (provide examples in interview).
- Logistics & intensity: comfortable with field testing cadence, occasional travel to flight-test sites, and participating in incident response outside standard hours when critical fleet incidents occur.
- Education & experience: bachelor’s degree in EE/CS or equivalent experience; typically 5+ years in embedded/flight-critical systems OR equivalent demonstrated impact.
What Else You Need To Know
The starting cash ranges for this role is $160,000 - $250,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more. This position may be hired at one of three levels based on the candidate’s experience, skills, and demonstrated scope:
- Software Engineer II: $160,000 - $190,000
- Senior Software Engineer: $190,000 - $220,000
- Staff Software Engineer: $220,000 - $250,000
Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.
We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!
Voluntary Self-Identification
For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.
As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.