Staff Flight-Critical Embedded Software Engineer

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

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Performance bonuses

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Paid time off

Job summary

Zipline is seeking an experienced engineer to develop flight-critical embedded software running on Linux for avionics subsystems like GNSS, IMU, and communications. You will own design, implementation, and production readiness across a distributed fleet.

Responsibilities include ensuring reliability, building test tooling, and leading validation efforts with hardware and field teams. A bachelor’s in EE/CS and 5+ years in embedded/flight-critical systems are typical requirements.

Qualifications

• Proven embedded production software delivery in C++ or Rust.
• Experience in embedded Linux environments required.
• Experience with safety- or mission-critical systems necessary.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end avionics subsystems (GNSS, Cellular, IMU).
• Deliver flight- and safety-critical code on embedded Linux.
• Define and ship measurable reliability and observability outcomes.
• Lead hardware-in-the-loop, bench, and field validation.
• Build tooling for deterministic test, logging, and regression testing.
• Triage high-severity field incidents and drive RCA.
• Collaborate with avionics hardware, systems engineering, and operations.

Skills

Embedded C++/Rust

Embedded Linux

Bare-metal/RTOS

Safety-critical systems

Fault management

Deterministic real-time

Test/validation

System-level thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in EE/CS

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

JTAG

Job description

Zipline is seeking an experienced engineer to develop flight-critical embedded software running on Linux for avionics subsystems like GNSS, IMU, and communications. You will own design, implementation, and production readiness across a distributed fleet.

Responsibilities include ensuring reliability, building test tooling, and leading validation efforts with hardware and field teams. A bachelor’s in EE/CS and 5+ years in embedded/flight-critical systems are typical requirements.