Autonomy Software Engineer

Overview

Software Integration Engineer – Autonomous Systems at Zipline

Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are. Our technology includes robotics and autonomy to decarbonize delivery, decrease road congestion, and reduce fossil fuel consumption and air pollution while building a more resilient global supply chain.

Are you a deeply technical software engineer drawn to the complexity of real-world autonomy systems? This role sits at the frontier of autonomous flight, bridging mission logic, real-time systems, autonomy behaviors, and validation frameworks. You will work across planning, perception, and controls subsystems to ensure features launch with robust performance, measurable safety, and high availability.

This is not about building web apps or backend dashboards; it is about owning deeply integrated autonomy features and bringing them into production.

• Drive system-level integration of complex autonomy features, spanning embedded flight software, real-time behavior logic, and mission-critical runtime systems.
• Own feature development from architecture to field validation, collaborating with autonomy, controls, and platform software teams to define robust, testable solutions.
• Implement and maintain core vehicle software in Rust and C++, focusing on performance, safety, and observability in safety-critical environments.
• Build and scale infrastructure to validate, simulate, and deploy autonomy behaviors across real-world fleets and global flight zones.
• Develop tooling to support software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing for rapid iteration and safe experimentation.
• Partner with systems engineering and autonomy teams to define real-world success metrics and build interfaces and logging to track them.
• Provide technical leadership across the autonomy organization—driving best practices, elevating integration quality, and mentoring engineers on deep-stack ownership.

• 8+ years of experience delivering production software in robotics, aerospace, autonomous vehicles, or other safety-critical embedded systems.
• Deep fluency in Rust, C++, or C with a focus on high-performance, fault-tolerant applications.
• Strong systems-thinking mindset, with ability to integrate cross-disciplinary software under tight constraints (timing, safety, power).
• Hands-on experience with robotics testing infrastructure, including SIL/HIL, log replay tooling, scenario validation, or embedded simulation.
• A track record of deploying autonomy features into real-world robots, drones, or vehicles operating under dynamic conditions.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity in hardware/software co-design environments, defining clear interfaces and iteration strategies from high-level goals.
• Passion for enabling robust autonomy development through testable code, clear debugging signals, and internal tooling.

• Your experience is primarily in web development, backend services, or UI/front-end engineering.
• You’re looking to build general-purpose cloud platforms or apps rather than deeply integrated, flight-critical software.

• This will be a hybrid role based out of our South San Francisco HQ.
• The starting cash range is $200,000 - $265,000 (target for minimum qualifications). Final pay depends on experience, location, and impact. The total compensation may include equity, bonuses, benefits, PTO, and more.
• Zipline is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and welcome applications from underrepresented groups in tech.

• Seniority level:
  Mid-Senior level
• Employment type:
  
  Full-time
• Job function:
  Quality Assurance
• Industries:
  Transportation, Logistics and Storage

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