Zipline is solving urgent and complex access challenges by building the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally. The company aims to transform the way goods move, particularly through autonomous drone delivery systems, to provide equitable access and build a more resilient global supply chain.
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.
- Collaborates tightly with perception, controls, and flight ops; crisp docs and design reviews.
