Software Engineer, Delivery Network Platform

Location: South San Francisco, California, USA

Department: Engineering

Software Engineer, Delivery Network Platform

At Zipline, we are building the operating system for an autonomous delivery network.

The Delivery Network Platform team builds the core systems that keep aircraft, sites, and infrastructure ready for live delivery operations. We create the software operators use to understand and control the network in real time, the orchestration systems that move the fleet through it, and the validation platforms that ensure the network behaves correctly as scale and complexity grow.

What you will own

You will own software in the critical path of fleet operations, including:

• Network Operating Center software for real-time operational visibility and intervention across aircraft, sites, missions, weather, and demand
• Fleet orchestration systems for assignment, routing, scheduling, and rebalancing
• Maintenance and asset health systems that connect issue detection to return-to-service
• Simulation and validation platforms that evaluate topology, load, and policy changes before they reach production
• Platform interfaces and configurable control planes that let other teams extend the network safely
  
  

Hard problems, real ownership

Most software roles optimize digital experiences. This role helps run a live autonomous logistics network.

You will work on problems like:

• maintaining a trustworthy real-time view of aircraft and critical site assets across the network
• keeping the network moving when demand shifts, weather changes, infrastructure degrades, or capacity gets tight
• building operator control surfaces that support fast, correct decisions under pressure
• simulating future network behavior before production absorbs the risk
  
  

These are production systems with immediate operational consequences. You will own critical parts of the platform end to end, make technical and product decisions, and directly influence how the network performs.

How we work

This team operates with high ownership, high trust, and a high technical bar. Engineers are expected to identify important problems, form a clear view of how the system should work, and drive solutions from concept through production.

We also expect engineers to use AI tooling effectively as a force multiplier across exploration, implementation, and debugging, while maintaining strong engineering rigor, judgment, and accountability.

What you will bring

You are likely a strong fit if you:

• have a track record of turning ambiguous, high-stakes systems problems into production software others rely on
• combine strong systems judgment with product instinct and care about solving the real operational problem
• can simplify complexity, define durable abstractions, and improve the architecture around you
• care deeply about reliability, correctness, and operator trust
• thrive in environments where software, operations, hardware, and product intersect
• want to shape architecture and operating models, not just implement scoped features
  
  

This role is best suited to engineers who want to own critical systems, make consequential decisions, and shape how a real-world autonomous logistics network scales.

What Else You Need to Know