Senior Camera Engineer

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  

Zipline is at the forefront of a logistics revolution, using autonomous aircraft to deliver just-in-time, life-saving medical supplies on multiple continents, 7 days a week. 

We believe access to medical care should not depend on your GPS coordinates. In service of our mission to operate at global scale, we’re growing our perception capabilities to expand quickly and safely into new products and locations, with the ultimate goal of delivering essential packages right to your doorstep. We are looking for a passionate and creative Camera Engineer to join Zipline’s Camera team and level up the quality of our images to enable the autonomy capabilities we are building. In this role, you’ll be part of a cutting-edge team responsible for developing tools for large-scale testing of image quality, development of ISP algorithms, and productionization of the cameras embedded into our Platform 1 and 2 vehicles. 

We’re looking for someone who is excited to take on the challenge of creating innovative and robust camera solutions to unlock and expand our vehicles operating domain.To be successful in this role, you’ll need to have a strong technical background in image signal processing, deep understanding of image processing and computer vision fundamentals, and a solid understanding of embedded systems. You should be comfortable working with and debugging complex software systems and have a record of delivering high-quality products. 

What You'll Do  

• Understand camera requirements and develop laboratory methods and tooling to assess image quality metrics and overall camera system performance.
• Implement quality metrics and calibration processes used in camera end-of-line screening at Zipline’s contract manufacturers.
• Develop hardware test automation code and batch processing scripts (e.g in Python) for validating camera performance in a manufacturing test environment and in our in-house image quality lab.
• Test custom algorithms for Zipline-specific imaging applications, including HDR, exposure control, and rolling shutter correction.
• Develop and test custom algorithms for Zipline-specific imaging applications, including HDR, exposure control, and rolling shutter correction.
• Perform failure analysis and conduct laboratory experiments for image quality and camera system issues, originating from reliability testing, quality, and field-based issues.
• Develop failure mitigations using a variety of methods including analysis, simulation, and laboratory testing to validate solutions.
• Help define camera and imaging roadmaps at Zipline.

 

What You'll Bring 

• Hands-on experience in image quality testing and corresponding test standards (e.g. MTF/SFR, color reproduction)
• Experience designing and building test fixtures for camera systems.
• Experience with industry-standard image quality testing software, e.g. Imatest.
• A deep understanding of sensor characteristics, optics, and interaction with opto-mechanical systems.
• Programming experience in Python, MATLAB, or equivalent (mid-level or above) and proficiency writing software to interface with hardware.
• Familiarity with Linux operating environments
• Pragmatic and fast-paced troubleshooting and iteration.
• BS/MS in computer science, physics, optics, EE, or similar.

 

What Else You Need to Know