Embedded Software Engineer (Data Platform), Autonomy

ABOUT ZIPLINE

Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is 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. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart, to enabling healthcare providers to bring care directly to U.S. homes, we are transforming the way things move for businesses, governments and consumers. The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it. Through our technology that includes robotics and autonomy, we are decarbonizing delivery, decreasing road congestion, and reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access to billions of people and building a more resilient global supply chain.

 

Join Zipline and help us to make good on our promise to build an equitable and more resilient global supply chain for billions of people.

 

Job Description

ABOUT THE ROLE

As an embedded software engineer on the Data Platform team at Zipline, you will be responsible for building the platform that enables our engineering teams to collect, process, and leverage data from our drone fleet. You will work at the intersection of embedded systems and data engineering, creating robust infrastructure that runs onboard our aircraft to handle the vast streams of telemetry, sensor, and operational data they generate.

Your work will focus on building reusable data processing primitives and tools that other engineering teams depend on—from autonomy engineers who need high-fidelity sensor data, to systems engineers who monitor fleet health, to data scientists who train the next generation of ML models. You will make critical architectural decisions about how data flows through our system, from collection on embedded hardware to cloud storage and beyond.

Our technical stack spans embedded Linux systems running Rust, microcontrollers with real-time firmware, and cloud-based data services. We are hiring for engineers who bring embedded systems expertise combined with strong data engineering fundamentals.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Build the Embedded Data Platform

• Design and implement core data platform infrastructure that runs onboard our drone fleet, providing reliable APIs and tools for engineering teams to instrument their systems
• Build high-performance data collection and processing pipelines on resource-constrained embedded Linux systems
• Create reusable frameworks and platforms that make it easy for engineering teams to collect data vital to improving their systems
• Design intelligent data management systems that prioritize critical telemetry data, efficiently process sensor data, and make real-time decisions about what data to store
• Design data protocols and formats that enable seamless integration with cloud processing and ML pipelines

Optimize for Scale and Reliability

• Optimize data pipelines for resource-constrained compute nodes and reduce the need for processing data offboard entirely
• Implement onboard data retention policies that balance storage constraints with debugging and compliance requirements
• Build monitoring and observability into the platform itself to detect issues, track usage patterns, and enable troubleshooting
• Design systems that gracefully handle edge cases, network failures, and resource constraints while maintaining data integrity

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

• Work closely with avionics, autonomy, and systems engineers to understand data requirements and build platform features that serve their needs
• Collaborate with backend data teams to ensure telemetry handoff meets requirements for fleet analytics, data processing, and model training
• Develop tools for analyzing data flow characteristics, identifying bottlenecks, and troubleshooting platform issues
• Build hardware-in-the-loop test infrastructure to validate the data platform under realistic conditions
• Participate in and lead design reviews to ensure data observability and platform integration are considered in new features

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

We're looking for engineers with strong backend and data infrastructure experience who are excited to work closer to the hardware and embedded systems.

Required

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with strong proficiency in Rust or similar systems language