Senior Real-Time Motion Planning Engineer

Namely; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to develop autonomous systems for real-world drone delivery. You will build real-time trajectory generation and decision-making for autonomous flight and tackle optimization across safety, energy and timing while handling complex dynamics.

This role emphasizes simulation, validation, and robust interfaces with perception and controls. You will collaborate across perception, controls, and flight ops to ensure reliable operations, with a strong focus

Qualifications

• Master's degree 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 & planning methods (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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

Rust

C++

C

Real-time systems

Embedded/Linux

Education

Master's degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

Zipline is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to develop autonomous systems for real-world drone delivery. You will build real-time trajectory generation and decision-making for autonomous flight and tackle optimization across safety, energy and timing while handling complex dynamics.

This role emphasizes simulation, validation, and robust interfaces with perception and controls. You will collaborate across perception, controls, and flight ops to ensure reliable operations, with a strong focus