2 months ago
Base Salary
$230k - $270k/yr
Responsibilities
- Build real-time trajectory generation and decision-making systems for autonomous flight using search, sampling, model predictive control, and optimization methods.
- Optimize safety, energy, time, and reliability while accounting for vehicle constraints.
- Develop robust planning for uncertain environments involving wind, turbulence, degraded sensors, and partial observability.
- Design safety-critical software for obstacle avoidance and interactions with people during package delivery and pickup.
- Extend the autonomy stack for new aircraft and payloads and define interfaces with perception and controls.
- Validate autonomy software through large-scale simulation, SIL/HIL, log replay, and fault injection.
- Analyze fleet data to validate safety metrics, improve models, and reduce long-tail failure modes.
Requirements
- Master’s degree in computer science or a related field.
- At least 7 years of experience building software for safety-critical systems in aerospace, autonomous vehicles, or robotics.
- Strong proficiency in Rust, C++, and C for real-time, fault-tolerant software on embedded/Linux systems.
- Deep experience with planning and search methods such as A*, anytime planning, RRT*, and sampling, as well as trajectory optimization and MPC.
- Hands-on experience with simulation at scale, SIL/HIL, log replay, and metrics-driven validation.
- Demonstrated experience shipping production autonomy software through ambiguous and noisy real-world conditions.
- Ability to own reliability outcomes and collaborate with perception, controls, and flight operations teams.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
- Paid time off.
- The total compensation package may include equity compensation and discretionary annual or performance bonuses.
About Zipline
Zipline designs, builds, and operates autonomous drone delivery systems for healthcare, retail, and public-sector customers. The privately held company runs end-to-end logistics—aircraft, software, and fulfillment—to deliver blood, vaccines, medicines, and consumer goods. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in South San Francisco, Zipline operates across multiple continents; notable work includes Rwanda’s national blood deliveries and U.S. home delivery pilots with Walmart.