Senior Motion Planning Software Engineer

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline in South San Francisco is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to advance autonomous flight systems. You will develop real-time trajectory generation, decision-making, and integrate with perception, controls, and flight ops to enable safe, reliable deliveries.

You will tackle planning under uncertainty, validate with large-scale sim, SIL/HIL, and operate across safety-critical constraints, energy, and timing.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science or related field with at least 3 years of experience in safety-critical software (aerospace/AV/robotics).
• Proficiency in Rust, C++, and C for real-time embedded/Linux systems.
• Strong background in planning and search algorithms (A*, RRT*, sampling) and trajectory optimization.
• Experience with large-scale simulation, SIL/HIL, log replay, and metrics-driven validation.
• Evidence shipping production-grade autonomy in noisy, ambiguous conditions and ensuring reliability.
• Collaborative systems thinker working with perception, controls, and flight operations; clear documentation and design reviews.

Responsibilities

• Build real-time trajectory generation and decision-making for autonomous flight.
• Tackle joint optimization across safety, energy, time, and reliability with vehicle constraints.
• Plan in uncertain environments with wind, degraded sensors, and partial observability.
• Design safety-critical software for obstacle avoidance and human interfaces during delivery.
• Extend the autonomy stack for new aircraft and payloads with clean interfaces.
• Prove readiness before flight via large-scale sim, SIL/HIL, log replay, fault-injection.
• Mine fleet data to validate safety metrics and reduce long-tail failure modes.

Skills

Rust

C++

C

Planning & search

Trajectory optimization

Simulation at scale

SIL/HIL

Log replay

Metrics-driven validation

Production-grade autonomy

Cross-functional collaboration

Documentation

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

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.

About You And The Role

Zipline operates the world’s largest autonomous logistics system (ground or air) — and in the coming year, we will be hyper‑scaling from thousands to tens of thousands of carefully coordinated drone deliveries in several dense, dynamic U.S. metros. Our Autonomy Motion Planning team is looking for a Senior Software Engineer who is passionate about developing autonomous systems for the real world. This role will explore cutting‑edge approaches to decision making and trajectory planning that will enable more accurate and timely deliveries, putting you in the position to make critical product decisions that will shape our future architectures.

What You’ll Do

• Build real‑time trajectory generation and decision‑making for autonomous flight (search‑based, sampling, MPC, convex/non‑convex optimization).
• Tackle joint optimization across safety, energy, time, and reliability—balancing mission goals with vehicle constraints.
• Plan in uncertain environments with complex dynamics: robustness to wind/turbulence, degraded sensors, and partial observability.
• Design safety‑critical software for avoiding obstacles and interfacing with humans while delivering and picking up packages.
• Extend the autonomy stack for new aircraft and payloads; define clean interfaces with perception and controls.
• Prove it before flight: large‑scale sim, SIL/HIL, log replay, and fault‑injection.
• Mine real fleet data to validate safety metrics, improve models, and burn down long‑tail failure modes.

What You’ll Bring

• Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field and 3+ years of experience building software for safety‑critical systems (aerospace/AV/robotics).
• Strong in Rust/C++/C for real‑time, fault‑tolerant code on embedded/Linux.
• Depth in planning & search (e.g. A*/anytime / RRT*/sampling), trajectory optimization/MPC—shipped on real robots/vehicles.
• Hands‑on with simulation at scale, SIL/HIL, log replay, and metrics‑driven validation.
• Evidence of shipping production‑grade autonomy through ambiguous, noisy conditions—owning the last mile to reliability.
• Systems thinker who collaborates tightly with perception, controls, and flight ops; crisp docs and design reviews.

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.