Embedded Software Engineer (Data Platform), Autonomy

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

16h•$175,000 - $210,000

About The Position

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.

Requirements

5+ years of professional software engineering experience with strong proficiency in Rust or similar systems languages
Proven experience building backend services, APIs, and data infrastructure at scale, preferably with exposure to high-throughput data pipelines or streaming systems
Strong foundation in data systems architecture: serialization formats, message queues, distributed systems concepts, and real-time data processing
Experience designing platform infrastructure or developer tools that other engineering teams depend on, with clear APIs and comprehensive documentation
Track record of diagnosing and resolving complex technical issues in production: performance bottlenecks, race conditions, data inconsistencies, or system reliability problems
Demonstrated ability to learn new technical domains quickly and apply engineering principles to novel problem spaces
Strong technical communication skills with examples of design documents, RFCs, or technical proposals that influenced system architecture

Nice To Haves

Experience with embedded Linux, IoT systems, edge computing, or other resource-constrained environments
Background in robotics, autonomous systems, hardware integration, or other domains bridging software and physical systems
Familiarity with real-time systems concepts, performance profiling, memory management, or low-level optimization
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and infrastructure-as-code
Track record working on safety-critical, highly regulated, or mission-critical systems where reliability is paramount.

Responsibilities

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