Field Systems Engineer - Flight Software

Zipline • South San Francisco, California, United States • Full-time

$135,000

per year

Data Analysis Software Development Logistics CI/CD C++ Systems Engineering Aerospace Robotics Program Management Autonomous Vehicles drone technology Rust Git Embedded Software Flight Software South San Francisco Field Systems Engineer Safety-critical

Job Description

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 and 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, with zero emissions.

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.

ABOUT YOU AND THE ROLE

Are you eager to apply your technical skills to solve real-world problems and drive meaningful change? Do you thrive in environments where you're given ownership, creative freedom, and complex challenges to tackle? If so, join our Field Systems Engineering team at Zipline—where your work directly impacts lives every day.

Zipline’s long-range drone platform began operations in Rwanda in 2016. With a fixed-wing design capable of flying over 200 km on a single charge, our drones enable fast, reliable delivery of critical medical supplies to remote communities. From helping new mothers in Rwanda to saving snake bite victims in Ghana, Zipline’s technology has already served millions across the African continent—delivering thousands of life-saving products daily.

The Field Systems Engineering (FSE) team operates at the intersection of Engineering and Operations. We ensure that the equipment we design is safe, robust, and reliable—because lives depend on it. As a Field Systems Engineer focused on Software, you’ll play a crucial role in optimizing the performance and reliability of our long-range drone systems.

In this role, you’ll work closely with a range of cross-functional engineers and flight operators to identify friction points in how our software supports daily operations. You’ll lead anomaly investigations, define data-driven requirements, and drive execution of improvement projects to enhance system reliability, ease of maintenance, and overall usability. Whether you're implementing direct software improvements or coordinating efforts across multiple teams, your goal is to ensure the platform runs smoothly and efficiently. At times, you’ll step into a technical program management role—helping unblock other engineers, align priorities, and drive key projects forward. Success in this role requires a strong technical foundation, excellent communication skills, and the ability to translate between the needs of operators in the field and the engineers building the system. If you thrive at the intersection of software and real-world impact, and enjoy bringing clarity and progress to complex systems, you’ll feel right at home here.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Optimize and improve a complex, real-world system used daily by operators—delivering timely solutions while ensuring all changes are thoroughly validated for safety and reliability.
Become intimately familiar with the ins and outs of our long range drone system. This will likely involve multiple visits to some of our global distribution centers.
Become the go-to expert on the existing flight software stack, along with its development, testing, and deployment tools.
Support triage and risk assessment of emergent technical issues, balancing urgency with sound engineering judgment.
Propose, scope, and lead new software initiatives—sometimes contributing directly to development, and always ensuring strong technical execution.
Drive data-driven analysis of system behavior using tools like Databricks to diagnose issues, evaluate performance, and quantify the impact of improvements.
Build and maintain strong working relationships across the organization—from operations and systems engineering to software leads and regulatory partners.
Identify, document, and drive improvements to the software development and deployment lifecycle for the long-range drone platform.
Collaborate across teams—global operations, engineering, and leadership—to shape the strategic software roadmap for the platform.
Design, coordinate, and execute high-impact testing campaigns that validate new features, improvements, or fixes in real-world conditions.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

Basic qualifications:

5+ years of professional experience in embedded software development, integration & test, mechatronics/robotics engineering, or similar, for hardware products in a safety-critical field, e.g. aerospace, robotics, medical devices, autonomous vehicles.
Proficiency in one or more “strongly typed” language: Rust, C++, C
Familiarity with software development practices, including version control (e.g. Git), testing, and CI/CD pipelines.
Ability to analyze field performance data, and develop data analysis tools in languages like Python, SQL, MATLAB
You are willing to work some nights/weekends and travel roughly 10% of the time, including to international sites as needed
You are eligible to work in the US

Preferred qualifications:

Demonstrable history of assuming ownership of complex engineering problems, and driving them from inception to solution.
Experience leading engineering projects with multi-disciplinary teams to solve technical problems in a fast-paced environment.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Demonstrated engineering intuition, ability to think critically, and be comfortable with ambiguity.
Creative problem solver that can make design and development decisions with limited or imperfect data.
Strong sense of accountability and integrity, and are not afraid to challenge the status quo.
Self-motivated with strong learning, multi-tasking, organizational, and documentation skills.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW

This role is an in-office opportunity based out of our South San Francisco HQ.

The starting cash range for this role is $135,000-175,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!