Senior Avionics Embedded Software Engineer (Flight-Critical)

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Medical, dental and vision insurance

Paid time off

Job summary

Zipline seeks an experienced engineer to own avionics subsystems and deliver flight‑critical embedded software on Linux. You will drive hardware bring‑up, real‑time interfaces, and fault management while coordinating with hardware, test, and operations teams for reliable deployments.

You will lead validation across bench and field environments, instrument data for regression analysis, and push for repeatable test plans and high‑integrity software changes across the fleet.

Qualifications

• Strong systems‑level experience shipping embedded production code (C++ or Rust).
• Experience with embedded Linux environments required.
• Production & safety experience in mission-critical systems (aviation, robotics, or similar).
• Bachelor's degree in EE/CS or equivalent; typically 5+ years in embedded/flight‑critical systems.

Responsibilities

• Own one or more avionics subsystems (GNSS, Cellular, IMU) as primary technical owner.
• Deliver and maintain flight- and safety-critical code on embedded Linux; drivers and real-time data interfaces.
• Define and ship measurable reliability and observability outcomes; instrument flight data for regression detection.
• Lead hardware‑in‑the‑loop, bench, and field validation; create repeatable test plans and failure‑insertion exercises.
• Build and extend tooling for deterministic test, logging, post‑flight analysis, and automated regression tests.
• Triage and resolve high‑severity field incidents; drive RCA and follow‑through until fleet metrics improve.
• Collaborate with avionics hardware, systems engineering, manufacturing, and flight operations on release criteria.

Skills

C++

Rust

Embedded Linux

Fault management

Real-time systems

Hardware bring-up

Telemetry

JTAG

Oscilloscopes

Education

Bachelor's degree in EE/CS or equivalent

Tools

JTAG

Oscilloscope

Job description

Zipline seeks an experienced engineer to own avionics subsystems and deliver flight‑critical embedded software on Linux. You will drive hardware bring‑up, real‑time interfaces, and fault management while coordinating with hardware, test, and operations teams for reliable deployments.

You will lead validation across bench and field environments, instrument data for regression analysis, and push for repeatable test plans and high‑integrity software changes across the fleet.