Autonomy Software Engineer, Differential GNSS

About Zipline
Do you want to change the world? Zipline delivers critical, life-saving medicine by drone to thousands of hospitals serving millions of people across multiple countries. Our mission: every human on Earth should have instant access to vital medical supplies. Join us and make this vision reality for billions.

About You and the Role
You love digging into raw GNSS receiver measurements, fusing them with IMU, camera and ground-station data, and feeding it all into highly robust state estimators? This role gives you room to experiment and prove your talent.

Our aircraft operate worldwide—in all weather and even during sensor failures. We build map-free systems that master a wide range of geographic environments and continuously improve so that we never hit the same fault twice.

What You’ll Do

• Extract maximum value from GNSS hardware: integrate all available ground-station data and build robust systems that tolerate long outages without significant drift.
• Design filters for intermittent GNSS availability; reliably use GNSS and vision data while coping with failure of either at any time.
• Perform trade studies on the value of new sensors or processing approaches to vehicle performance and reliability.
• Analyse system performance in simulation and with field data; identify and fix under-performing components.
• Participate in collaborative code reviews within a strong team building safety-critical software in Rust.

What You’ll Bring

• Degree in physics or an engineering discipline.
• Experience with state estimation, probabilistic filtering, GNSS RTK & raw measurements, IMU data, sensor modelling and simulation.
• Strong maths: calculus, linear algebra, non-linear optimisation, numerical methods.
• High-performance software in compiled languages (C/C++/Rust/Ada).
• Ability to solve complex problems independently within an integrated team.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Compensation & Location
Cash range: USD 200k – 265k per year (≈ USD 16.7k – 22.1k monthly gross) plus equity, discretionary bonus, comprehensive benefits (medical, dental, vision, PTO) and more. Final package depends on experience, qualifications and work location. Role based in San Francisco, California.

Zipline is an equal-opportunity employer. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and encourage diversity in tech. Not sure if you’re a perfect fit? Apply anyway!