Autonomy Drone Software Engineer: Flight & Planning

DoorDash; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 198,600 - 292,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with employer matching

Paid parental leave

Wellness benefits

Commuter benefits match

Job summary

DoorDash Labs is seeking a Planning & Controls Engineer for the Autonomy Software team to advance drone delivery capabilities.

You will own flight control and motion planning algorithms, design controllers in C++ for embedded platforms, and validate them through flight tests and simulations.

This role requires deep background in controls, dynamics, and robotics, with experience in state estimation and MPC. The role offers a competitive salary, equity grants, and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• MS/PhD in EE, ME, CS, Robotics, or related technical field.
• Strong C++ and embedded systems knowledge.
• Deep understanding of controls, stability analysis, and controller tuning.
• Experience building robot control stacks end-to-end from design to hardware testing.
• Experience with flight controllers and state estimation integration.
• Familiarity with PX4 internals is a nice‑to‑have.

Responsibilities

• Own and develop flight control, motion planning, and mission planning algorithms for multi-rotor drone delivery.
• Design controllers and implement them in C++ on embedded platforms, test in flight.
• Develop and tune low-level flight control for multirotor and hybrid aircraft on embedded platforms.
• Own the dynamics simulation and aerodynamics modeling of the aircraft.
• Bring up and tune flight controllers on new drone platforms.
• Develop, tune, and test fault-tolerant control for motor loss and emergency behaviors.
• Build a trajectory motion planner for smooth flight and obstacle avoidance.
• Help develop the high-level mission route planner with fallback locations.

Skills

Controls fundamentals

C++

Embedded systems

Flight control

Motion planning algorithms

State estimation integration

Dynamics modeling

A*/D*/RRT variants

MPC

Open-source robotics contributions

Education

MS/PhD in EE/ME/CS/Robotics or related field

Tools

PX4

Embedded platforms

Job description

DoorDash Labs is seeking a Planning & Controls Engineer for the Autonomy Software team to advance drone delivery capabilities.

You will own flight control and motion planning algorithms, design controllers in C++ for embedded platforms, and validate them through flight tests and simulations.

This role requires deep background in controls, dynamics, and robotics, with experience in state estimation and MPC. The role offers a competitive salary, equity grants, and comprehensive benefits.