Senior Embedded Software Engineer, Zipline

• 8+ years of professional experience in embedded software development, integration & test, mechatronics/robotics engineering, or similar, for hardware products in a safety-critical field, e.g. aerospace, robotics, medical devices, autonomous vehicles
• Proficiency in one or more “strongly typed” language: Rust, C++, C
• Familiarity with software development practices, including version control (e.g. Git), testing, and CI/CD pipelines
• Ability to analyze field performance data, and develop data analysis tools in languages like Python, SQL, MATLAB
• You are willing to work some nights/weekends and travel, including to international sites as needed
• You are eligible to work in the US
• Eager to apply your technical skills to solve real-world problems and drive meaningful change
• You thrive in environments where you're given ownership, creative freedom, and complex challenges to tackle
• 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!

Desirable

• The Field Systems Engineering (FSE) team operates at the intersection of Engineering and Operations
• We ensure that the equipment we design is safe, robust, and reliable—because lives depend on it
• As a Senior Embedded Software Engineer on the FSE team, you’ll play a crucial role in optimizing the performance and reliability of our long-range drone systems
• In this role, you’ll work closely with a range of cross-functional engineers and flight operators to identify friction points in how our software supports daily operations for our Platform 1 vehicle that is supporting operations around the world
• You’ll lead anomaly investigations, define data-driven requirements, and drive execution of improvement projects to enhance system reliability, ease of maintenance, and overall usability
• Whether you're implementing direct software improvements or coordinating efforts across multiple teams, your goal is to ensure the platform runs smoothly and efficiently
• At times, you’ll step into a technical program management role—helping unblock other engineers, align priorities, and drive key projects forward
• Success in this role requires an entrepreneurial mindset, strong technical foundation, excellent communication skills, and the ability to translate between the needs of operators in the field and the engineers building the system
• If you thrive at the intersection of software and real-world impact, and enjoy bringing clarity and progress to complex systems, you’ll feel right at home here
• Optimize and improve a complex, real-world system used daily by operators—delivering timely solutions while ensuring all changes are thoroughly validated for safety and reliability
• Travel to our international operations centers to understand how the system works in the real world
• Become the go-to expert on the existing flight software stack, along with its development, testing, and deployment tools
• Support triage and risk assessment of emergent technical issues, balancing urgency with sound engineering judgment
• Lead new projects to drive operations efficiency and increase system robustness
• Drive data-driven analysis of system behavior using tools like Databricks to diagnose issues, evaluate performance, and quantify the impact of improvements
• Build and maintain strong working relationships across the organization—from operations and systems engineering to software leads and regulatory partners
• Identify, document, and drive improvements to the software development and deployment lifecycle for the long-range drone platform
• Collaborate across teams—global operations, engineering, and leadership—to shape the strategic software roadmap for the platform
• Design, coordinate, and execute high-impact testing campaigns that validate new features, improvements, or fixes in real-world conditions