Motor Control Firmware Engineer - Drone Delivery

Telemetry Today LLC; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline, the world’s leading autonomous drone delivery service, seeks a Motor Control Engineer in South San Francisco to ship high-performance motor controller firmware for Zipline’s proprietary controllers. You will collaborate with electrical, structures, flight software, and test-site teams to deliver reliable, data-driven control solutions.

You’ll work with C++ on bare-metal ARM, plus Rust and Python tooling, and use HIL test setups, MATLAB/Julia/Python analyses, and Monte Carlo simulations

Qualifications

• Proficient in C/C++ for firmware on embedded platforms.
• Experience with Rust and Python tooling for production systems.
• Strong grasp of nonlinear estimation techniques and classical control theory.
• Experience with mechatronic control systems and embedded environments.
• Willingness to work in a safety-critical, fast-paced setting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• Write peripheral drivers for new revisions of Zipline’s motor controller hardware.
• Get your hands dirty validating your firmware on the bench and in flight tests.
• Understand and improve the reliability of the flight software system, with fault management strategies and hardware-in-the-loop tests.
• Build vehicle simulations in Rust to validate and regression test Zipline’s firmware.
• 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.

Skills

C/C++

Rust

Python

Nonlinear estimation

Control theory

Embedded systems

Systems engineering

Executive communication

Tools

Matlab

Julia

Job description

Zipline, the world’s leading autonomous drone delivery service, seeks a Motor Control Engineer in South San Francisco to ship high-performance motor controller firmware for Zipline’s proprietary controllers. You will collaborate with electrical, structures, flight software, and test-site teams to deliver reliable, data-driven control solutions.

You’ll work with C++ on bare-metal ARM, plus Rust and Python tooling, and use HIL test setups, MATLAB/Julia/Python analyses, and Monte Carlo simulations