Software Engineer, Zipline
Motor Firmware
$160-215k
5 days a week in office
Transforming the way goods move
Be an early applicant
Transforming the way goods move
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$160-215k
5 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To open up access to emergency medical care to everyone in the world.
Role
Who you are
- Fluency in C++, and excitement about writing code in Rust and Python
- Eagerness to learn, no prior experience with motors is required
- Curiosity and a willingness to work in a variety of embedded environments, from running on bare metal, to using a RTOS and integrating with embedded Linux
- Experience supporting robotic systems in the real-world, in particular addressing the long-tail of edge-cases and rare events to guarantee safety, reliability, and performance
- A systems-engineering mindset, and an eye for finding efficient solutions to problems that may lie outside your core competencies
- Strong executive communication skills, to efficiently communicate about your work with folk who are not firmware or control systems experts
- You must be able to work on-site in South San Francisco, CA
- A background in electronics design would be appreciated, but is not required
What the job involves
- As a Motor Firmware engineer at Zipline, you’ll be responsible for shipping high-performance motor controller firmware for Zipline’s family of proprietary motor controllers
- Expect to work closely with electrical engineers, structures and mechanism designers, flight software developers, and test-site operations teams
- Our close-knit engineering culture presents a unique opportunity to learn from a strong multi-disciplinary team, and lets you swiftly ship features that are clearly linked to the delivery experience
- We use C++ in our firmware development, with Rust and Python for tooling that will be deployed to our production systems in the field
- The team uses hardware- and software-in-the-loop test infrastructure to validate new features and regression test existing functionality
- You’ll often be querying large data-sets from our test operations to make high-quality data-driven engineering decisions and build prototypes of new algorithms
- You’ll build analyses in Matlab, Julia, or Python to prove the performance of your controls designs, and execute Monte-Carlo simulations to validate complex dynamics
- Design estimators and controllers for propulsion motors and actuators, in close collaboration with the vehicle controls team
- Implement these controllers in C++, targeting a bare-metal ARM microcontroller
- Understand and improve the reliability of the flight software system as a whole, working with hardware and systems engineers to develop comprehensive fault management strategies and hardware-in-the-loop tests
- Build vehicle simulations in Rust to validate and regression test high-risk features
- Collaborate with electrical engineers to bring-up and validate new inverter designs
- Build and maintain automated systems to monitor the performance of our fleet and direct maintenance activity
Our take
Zipline is transforming the way goods move by creating the first logistics system that serves all humans equally via a drone delivery service. As the first emergency drone logistics operation, Zipline is fundamentally changing how we transport emergency medical supplies and has expanded into commercial deliveries. It's partnered with several major companies, including Walmart.
Zipline has an edge over potential future competitors as the company has thousands of hours and over 35 million miles of flight to prove the system is safe and effective. It’s also one of the first companies to receive a full commercial operating certificate, putting Zipline in a strong position to continuously branch out to other markets.
The unicorn company operates globally and has signed its first government contract with Rwanda to provide up to 2 million drone deliveries by 2029. It is also aiming to start commercial deliveries to individual households in the near future. With big companies such as Amazon and Walmart examining “instant” delivery options, Zipline has a proven track record and the equipment and logistics in place to provide such services. 2023 funding pushed Zipline's valuation to a staggering $4.2 billion, indicating a bright future.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
34% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Apr 2023
$330m
SERIES F
Jul 2021
$250m
SERIES E
Total funding: $813.7m
Company benefits
- Generous parental leave
- Generous vacation policy
- Monthly wellness stipend
- Monthly team events
- Healthcare, vision, and dental
- Healthy, delicious meals and snacks
- Dog-friendly offices
Company HQ
South San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Having studied Economics and Biotechnology at Harvard, they worked for almost 11 months as a self-employed rock climber. They combined their academic and practical experience to co-found Zipline in July 2011.
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