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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.

About You and the Role

System Prototype and Test is a multi-disciplinary hardware and software team responsible for the development and deployment of flight prototypes and automated test systems from the early stages of a project through to production and field release.

As the Embedded Systems Manager for the System Prototype & Test team, you will lead and grow a team of software and electrical engineers responsible for the design and deployment of complete embedded solutions with high the level of reliability needed for flight and production use, including the development of the software architecture for our flight systems, drivers for a wide array of vehicle components, test data organization and analysis infrastructure, custom electronics boards and harnesses. As the lead of a team that lives at the system level you will also need to work cross-functionally with all subsystem owners to ensure we deliver a cohesive system and to provide guidance on common tools and joint architecture decisions. All this work is critical to Zipline’s continued success in delivering life-saving medical supplies around the world and in the development of new flight systems that will accelerate us to our mission of 100 million yearly deliveries.

We are looking for a leader with a strong foundation in embedded software and electronics, with the proven capacity to lead and grow a high-performing team.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the embedded systems department responsible for the full vertical stack from low-level embedded firmware to implementing control algorithms; from concept, prototyping, validating, and shipping code to production
• Grow the team including hiring and coaching for performance
• Craft the plans for prototypes needed to validate our full system functionality and the roadmap to push them towards our final flight system to be delivered to the field
• Develop and execute comprehensive test plans for our flight systems from manufacturing and design validation to field preflight and maintenance
• Step in where needed, rolling up your sleeves to write code, triage field failures, and lead test campaigns in hardware or software to get to the root-cause of issues
• Work with cross-functional partners to anticipate software features, and balance the needs of field upgrades, new features, and internal tool development

What You’ll Bring

• Minimum 5 years of design experience in writing and shipping production embedded software code and systems in Python, C, C++, or Rust
• Past success growing and leading a high-performance team, including direct leadership and leading as a ‘lead-of-leads’
• Design experience with safety critical hardware and software, especially in the fields of avionics and power systems
• Experience working with both embedded linux systems and microcontrollers
• Clear communication skills and the ability to explain technical challenges and solutions to fellow engineers and non-engineers alike
• Must be eligible to work in the US
• Must be able to work in person at Zipline’s South San Francisco headquarters

What Else You Need to Know

The starting cash range for this role is $170,000 - $210,000. 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!