Staff Software Engineer

Who you are

• 10+ years building and operating production-grade distributed systems
• Deep full-stack development experience with Python, Go, or a similar object-oriented language, plus React or a comparable JavaScript framework
• Experience architecting distributed, event-driven systems using Kafka or similar technologies
• Strong database modeling and performance-tuning experience with Postgres
• A track record of designing software that is simple, flexible, resilient, and supported by comprehensive automated testing
• Experience making architectural decisions in a fast-changing operational environment and mentoring junior engineers through coaching, pairing, or design reviews
• Ability to travel 3-4 times a year to visit our operations in Africa; desire to travel more extensively or to relocate near our operations is a plus
• Experience with fulfillment, logistics, or warehouse systems is valued
• If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

What the job involves

• Zipline’s Nest Applications Software team builds the fulfillment, maintenance, and flight systems behind automated delivery operations in Africa
• These systems manage medical inventory, order processing, flight coordination, supply-chain and financial workflows, and customer ordering and tracking
• You will own critical decisions across these connected workflows, helping operators and customers see accurate information, move orders through fulfillment, and coordinate reliable deliveries
• Your work will connect field operations, internal business teams, and customer-facing applications as the network grows
• Own end-to-end software for fulfillment, maintenance, and flight workflows that support Zipline operations in Africa
• Partner with operations, supply chain, finance, and customer-facing teams to simplify workflows and resolve high-impact user problems
• Lead backend and frontend delivery for major projects, from architecture and data models through implementation and production rollout
• Design modular distributed and event-driven systems that can adapt as operational and business needs change
• Build automated unit, integration, and system testing that protects critical inventory, order, and flight-coordination workflows
• Improve production reliability, observability, and robustness so teams can identify issues and make sound operational decisions
• Raise engineering effectiveness through code review, design standards, mentoring, and AI-assisted development, testing, and operational workflows