Staff Avionics Embedded Software Engineer (Flight-Critical)

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

Job summary

Zipline in San Francisco is seeking an experienced software engineer to build flight-critical embedded systems. You will own avionics subsystems and deliver deterministic code in C++ or Rust on embedded Linux, with safety-focused validation and field diagnostics.

You’ll work across hardware-in-the-loop tests, real-time interfaces, and production deployments, partnering with hardware, systems, and operations to improve reliability, observability, and fleet performance.

Qualifications

• Must-have technical skills: substantial systems-level experience shipping embedded production code in C++ or Rust; Embedded Linux environments required; bare-metal/RTOS exposure is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own avionics subsystems end-to-end (GNSS, Cellular, IMU) and be the primary technical owner for design, implementation and production readiness.
• Deliver and maintain flight- and safety-critical code on embedded Linux: drivers, device bring-up, real-time data interfaces, fault management, and graceful degradation logic.
• Define and ship measurable reliability and observability outcomes; instrument systems for in-field fault detection and regression prioritization.
• Lead hardware-in-the-loop, bench, and field validation; partner with systems, hardware, test engineering, and ops to create repeatable test plans.
• Build tooling for deterministic test, logging, post-flight analysis, and automated regression tests for safe fleet deployments.
• Triage and resolve high-severity incidents: drive RCA and follow through until metrics show resolution.
• Collaborate with avionics hardware, systems engineering, manufacturing, and flight ops to set integration boundaries and release criteria for software changes.

Skills

Embedded C++/Rust

Embedded Linux

RTOS/bare-metal

Fault management

Field testing

Subsystem ownership

Education

Bachelor's degree in EE/CS

Tools

JTAG

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Telemetry

Job description

Zipline in San Francisco is seeking an experienced software engineer to build flight-critical embedded systems. You will own avionics subsystems and deliver deterministic code in C++ or Rust on embedded Linux, with safety-focused validation and field diagnostics.

You’ll work across hardware-in-the-loop tests, real-time interfaces, and production deployments, partnering with hardware, systems, and operations to improve reliability, observability, and fleet performance.