Software Systems Validation Engineer
Zipline
South San Francisco, CA, USA
Posted on Jan 18, 2025
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
As a Software Systems Validation Engineer you will lead end-to-end software evaluation of an autonomous drone delivery system that comprises various subsystems as sensor drivers, navigation, guidance and control, motion planning, and actuator control. As part of this evaluation, you will build metrics and visualizations that highlight capability improvements, gaps, and regressions, and ultimately fast track engineering decision making for large scale deployments.
You will evaluate and continuously improve validation practices, identifying areas where improvements to tools, methodologies, and processes can increase validation coverage and development efficiency. For this, you will collaborate closely with our embedded and autonomy software teams, systems engineering, data platform and test infrastructure teams, and ensure that our software behaviors function as expected in real-world scenarios.
You will, thus, be bridging critical gaps between Systems Engineering and Software Development at Zipline.
What You'll Do
- Design, implement, and execute validation scenarios for the end to end software stack across autonomous drone software systems to ensure robust and reliable behavior
- Validate systems requirements and contribute to software requirement iterations
- Lead software systems validation framework strategies, focusing on system-level performance and safety evaluation
- Build software performance and safety monitors that work reliably with real time systems
- Collaborate with test infrastructure and data platform teams to build systems validation frameworks
- Apply risk analysis and mitigation strategies in your testing approach, ensuring that system behaviors align with requirements
What You'll Bring
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field
- 3+ years of Software Development experience working with robotic systems, with deeper experience in at least 1 of the following: Perception, Motion Planning, Navigation, Control, Estimation & Dynamics, or Diagnostics / parallel autonomy software development
OR
- 3+ years of experience in Software Systems Engineering OR Validation for Autonomous robot applications
- Experience with handling nominal, adversarial and edge case testing for robotics applications
- Experience working with large data sets in production pipelines, system safety / performance evaluation and root causing techniques
- Proficiency in scripting (python, sql) and programming languages for safety critical applications (MISRA C, Rust, C++)
- Bonus
- Experience with risk assessment tools and techniques (STPA , HARA)
- Experience with DO-178C , ISO26262, ISO 21448, ARP 4761, ARP 4754
- Background in reliability engineering / statistical validation techniques
- Experience building software safety and software performance requirements from functional / technical requirements
What Else You Need to Know
The starting cash range for this role is $130,000 - 165,000. 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!
