Zipline
Senior Software Engineer, Autonomy Simulation & Validation
$180K–$260K
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA +2 · Senior · Full-time · Posted Jul 22, 2026
- Location
- Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
South San Francisco, California, USA
South San Francisco, California, United States - Experience
- 5+ years building software systems for simulation, testing, or safety validation; ideally in robotics, autonomy, aerospace, or other real-time, safety-critical domains.
About the job
Builds internal simulation and validation platforms that help autonomy engineers test, measure, and safely release autonomous aircraft software at scale.
What you'll do
- Develop infrastructure, simulation tools, scenario generation, and component testing tools for autonomy validation.
- Build automated systems to run, track, and analyze validation tasks, and define evaluation methodologies and metrics.
- Collaborate with autonomy, systems, data, flight-test, and QA teams to codify requirements and connect flight results to validation workflows.
What they ask for
- Strong software engineering skills with proficiency in C++, Rust, or C.
- Hands-on experience building or working with simulation systems for robotics or autonomous systems, particularly for testing or validation.
- Experience building tools, platforms, or infrastructure used by other engineers.
- Understanding of validation methodologies, including defining metrics and evaluating complex electromechanical systems.
Nice to have
- Python for tooling and scripting.
- Experience with high-fidelity simulation or scenario generation frameworks, large-scale or distributed systems, systems engineering concepts, autonomy stacks, or machine-learning systems.
Pay
$180,000 - $260,000 USD starting cash range; $180,000 - $220,000 USD base salary (Senior Software Engineer); $220,000 - $260,000 USD base salary (Staff Software Engineer)
Tools
C++, Rust, C, Python, Kubernetes, AWS, MATLAB/Simulink
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