Zipline is looking to solve the world's most urgent and complex access challenges by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are, and is currently hyper-scaling its autonomous logistics system
Requirements
- Master's degree in Computer Science or related field and 3+ years of experience building software for safety-critical systems (aerospace/AV/robotics/medical)
- Strong in Rust/C++/C for real-time, fault-tolerant code on embedded/Linux
- Depth in planning & search (A*/ anytime / RRT*/sampling), trajectory optimization/MPC, or multi-agent deconfliction—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)
- Design collision avoidance and large-scale multi-agent planning (fleet deconfliction, airspace rules, traffic management) that scales to 10,000+ flights/day
- Tackle joint optimization across safety, energy, time, and reliability—balancing mission goals with vehicle/airspace constraints
- Plan in uncertain environments with complex dynamics: chance-constraints, robustness to wind/turbulence, degraded sensors, and partial observability
- Extend the autonomy stack for new aircraft and payloads; define clean interfaces with perception and controls
- Prove it before flight: scenario libraries, SIL/HIL, large-scale sim, log replay, and fault-injection
- Mine real fleet data to validate safety metrics (separation, risk, intervention rate), improve models, and burn down long-tail failure modes
Other
- Master's degree in Computer Science or related field
- 3+ years of experience building software for safety-critical systems
- Ability to collaborate tightly with perception, controls, and flight ops
- Crisp documentation and design review skills
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with a high level of autonomy
