Software Engineer, Airspace Platform
Zipline · South San Francisco, California, USA ·
- Seniority
- Senior
- Category
- Software engineering
Senior Software Engineer building airspace-management and flight deconfliction systems for Zipline's autonomous drone delivery network, using distributed systems, APIs, AWS, and Kubernetes.
About Zipline
Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products.
Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations.
Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe.
We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds.
About You and The Role
Zipline is expanding its autonomous delivery network around the world, helping people get what they need regardless of where they live. To support that growth, we are building software that enables autonomous aircraft to safely and efficiently operate in increasingly complex airspace.
This technology helps Zipline coordinate with other commercial drone operators and existing airspace users. It is a key part of scaling autonomous delivery safely.
We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer who thrives in ambiguous, early-stage environments and enjoys turning complex operational and safety requirements into reliable products. You will help shape both the architecture and the product as we move from initial concepts to deployed systems.
Previous aviation experience is not required. We’re looking for engineers who are excited to learn the domain and build scalable, safety-critical systems with meaningful real-world impact.
What You'll Do
- Lead the design and delivery of airspace-management capabilities for one of the world’s most active commercial drone networks
- Build core services for shared-airspace coordination, flight deconfliction, and simulation
- Translate safety, operational, and interoperability requirements into clear system designs and product decisions
- Design systems for correctness, resilience, testability, observability, and auditability
- Own projects across the software lifecycle, from technical discovery and architecture through implementation, validation, rollout, and operation
- Design APIs and data models that support coordination across internal systems and external airspace participants
- Contribute to relevant open-source projects and industry interoperability efforts
- Raise the engineering bar through technical leadership, thoughtful reviews, and mentorship
What You'll Bring
- A track record of designing and delivering reliable software systems in complex or high-consequence environments
- Strong experience with distributed systems, service architecture, APIs, and data modeling
- Sound engineering judgment, including the ability to make and communicate tradeoffs under ambiguity
- Experience operating production services in a modern cloud environment; experience with AWS and Kubernetes is helpful
- A product mindset and empathy for operators, partners, and other users of the systems you build
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Experience owning technically complex projects from definition through production
Helpful Experience
- Safety-critical, security-sensitive, real-time, or other high-consequence systems
- Simulation, optimization, geospatial systems, robotics, autonomy, or aviation
- Interoperability standards or open-source development
- AWS and Kubernetes at production scale
What Else You Need To Know
Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.
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!
Voluntary Self-Identification
For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.
As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.