Zipline

drone delivery

SeniorMotionPlanningSoftwareEngineer

$200–245k South San Francisco, California, United States
The Brief

“Senior Motion Planning Software Engineer at Zipline. Skills: Motion Planning, Autonomous Systems, Software Engineering, Real-time Systems, Safety-Critical Systems. Build real-time trajectory generation and decision-making for autonomous flight. Tackle joint optimization across safety, energy, time, and reliability—balancing mission goals with vehicle constraints”

What You'll Achieve.

enable more accurate and timely deliveries; shape our future architectures; deliver essential goods; define the standard for safe, reliable autonomous flight in the real world

Industry & Context.

drone delivery
Problems you'll solve

practical problem solvers; sculpt from first principles; enjoy facing adversity; can do the impossible at record breaking speeds

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

Master's degree in Computer Science or related field, 3+ years of experience building software for safety-critical systems (aerospace/AV/robotics), Rust/C++/C for real-time, fault-tolerant code on embedded/Linux, Hands-on with simulation at scale, SIL/HIL, log replay, and metrics-driven validation, Evidence of shipping production-grade autonomy through ambiguous, noisy conditions—owning the last mile to reliability, Systems thinker who collaborates tightly with perception, controls, and flight, crisp docs and design reviews

What You'll Do.

Build real-time trajectory generation and decision-making for autonomous flight

Tackle joint optimization across safety

and reliability—balancing mission goals with vehicle constraints

Plan in uncertain environments with complex dynamics

Design safety-critical software for avoiding obstacles and interfacing with humans while delivering and picking up packages

Extend the autonomy stack for new aircraft

Define clean interfaces with perception and controls

Prove it before flight using large-scale sim

Mine real fleet data to validate safety metrics

and burn down long-tail failure modes

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

collaborates tightly with perception, controls, and flight

Communication Scope

crisp docs and design reviews

Free ATS check

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