Hiring: Senior Motion Planning Software Engineer Company: Zipline Location: South San Francisco, CA Job Posted Time: 2026-09-16 15:33:40 Target Skills & Keywords : C++, Embedded Systems, Linux, Rust About the job Experience: •3+ years of experience building software for safety-critical systems (aerospace/AV/robotics). Required Skills: •Build real-time trajectory generation and decision-making for autonomous flight (search-based, sampling, MPC, convex/non-convex optimization). •Tackle joint optimization across safety, energy, time, and reliability—balancing mission goals with vehicle constraints. •Plan in uncertain environments with complex dynamics: robustness to wind/turbulence, degraded sensors, and partial observability. •Design safety-critical software for avoiding obstacles and interfacing with humans while delivering and picking up packages •Extend the autonomy stack for new aircraft and payloads; define clean interfaces with perception and controls. •Prove it before flight: large-scale sim, SIL/HIL, log replay, and fault-injection. •Mine real fleet data to validate safety metrics, improve models, and burn down long-tail failure modes. Qualifications: •Master's degree in Computer Science or related field and 3+ years of experience building software for safety-critical systems (aerospace/AV/robotics). •Strong in Rust/C++/C for real-time, fault-tolerant code on embedded/Linux. •Depth in planning & search (e.g. A*/ anytime / RRT*/sampling), trajectory optimization/MPC—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. •What Else You Need To Know Compensation: •$190,000 - $230,000 / year Interested candidates, please apply directly through the job posting on company's career page or try via AI auto apply on this platform. Don't miss this opportunity to join a forward-thinking team!