Senior Software Engineer, Airspace Platform

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

Job summary

Zipline is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to scale its autonomous delivery network. You will help design the architecture and build safety-critical software that lets autonomous aircraft operate in increasingly complex airspace.

This role emphasizes reliability, observability, and scalable systems shaping Zipline’s global logistics platform. You will own core services, collaborate across teams, and mentor engineers while advancing airspace coordination and risk-aware decision making for

Qualifications

• Experience designing and delivering reliable software systems in complex or high-consequence environments.
• Strong experience with distributed systems, service architecture, APIs, and data modeling.
• Experience operating production services in a modern cloud environment; AWS and Kubernetes experience is helpful.
• Product mindset and empathy for operators, partners, and other users of the systems you build.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of airspace-management capabilities for one of the world’s most active commercial drone networks
• Build core services for shared-airspace coordination, flight deconfliction, and simulation
• Translate safety, operational, and interoperability requirements into clear system designs and product decisions
• Design systems for correctness, resilience, testability, observability, and auditability
• Own projects across the software lifecycle, from technical discovery and architecture through implementation, validation, rollout, and operation
• Design APIs and data models that support coordination across internal systems and external airspace participants
• Contribute to relevant open-source projects and industry interoperability efforts
• Raise the engineering bar through technical leadership, thoughtful reviews, and mentorship

Skills

Distributed systems

APIs

Data modeling

Production services

AWS

Kubernetes

System design

Communication

Ownership

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Job description

Zipline is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to scale its autonomous delivery network. You will help design the architecture and build safety-critical software that lets autonomous aircraft operate in increasingly complex airspace.

This role emphasizes reliability, observability, and scalable systems shaping Zipline’s global logistics platform. You will own core services, collaborate across teams, and mentor engineers while advancing airspace coordination and risk-aware decision making for