How to Apply to Zebra Technologies

9 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 279 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Zebra Technologies is a $4-5B enterprise hardware and software company that powers front-line workers in retail, warehouse, healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics — far larger and more strategic than its consumer profile suggests.
  • The 2014 Motorola Solutions Enterprise acquisition reshaped the company; the 2020 Reflexis (now Workcloud), 2022 Matrox Imaging, 2023 Adaptive Vision, and Photoneo deals are reshaping it again toward software and machine vision.
  • CEO Bill Burns took over in March 2024 after Anders Gustafsson's long tenure; the strategic direction is hardware-plus-software-plus-AI but execution is mid-flight.
  • Project Phoenix cut roughly ten percent of headcount in 2024 after the 2023 retail and warehouse destocking cycle; cyclicality is real and worth acknowledging in interviews.
  • Honeywell is the closest direct competitor across nearly every product line; Datalogic, Cognex, Impinj, and Keyence press on specific lanes.
  • Eightfold AI runs the ATS — match scores, skill adjacencies, and structured profiles matter as much as the resume itself.
  • Interview culture is mature B2B enterprise: structured, technical, and respectful of depth over flash; expect domain-expert hiring managers.
  • Lincolnshire, Illinois HQ with 50-plus global offices; engineering-heavy, pragmatic, Midwestern industrial culture rather than coastal SaaS startup.

About Zebra Technologies

Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA) is the enterprise mobility and automatic identification leader most people have never heard of, even though its hardware sits in nearly every Walmart, Amazon fulfillment center, FedEx depot, and hospital floor in North America. Founded in 1969 by Edward Kaplan and Gerhard Cless and headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois, Zebra started as a barcode label printer company, went public in 1991, and grew steadily for decades before reshaping itself with the 2014 acquisition of Motorola Solutions' Enterprise business for roughly $3.45 billion. That deal brought rugged Android handheld computers, scanners, and RFID into the portfolio and turned Zebra into a true end-to-end front-line worker platform company. Today Zebra employs roughly 9,000 people across 50-plus offices and ships hardware in four product families: barcode and label printers (the legacy ZT, ZQ, ZD, and ZE series), rugged mobile computers and tablets (TC73/TC78, EC30, MC93, ET51), barcode scanners and RFID readers (DS22XX/DS3678, FX9600, ATR7000), and a growing software stack — Zebra Workcloud (the rebranded Reflexis workforce management platform acquired in 2020), Zebra DNA device security, MotionWorks asset tracking, and a machine vision suite built from the Matrox Imaging (2022), Adaptive Vision (2023), and Photoneo acquisitions. The healthcare unit ships wristband printers, mobile clinical computing, and Epic and Cerner integrations to a large hospital customer base. The company is in transition. CEO Anders Gustafsson led Zebra from 2007 through 2023 and was succeeded by Bill Burns, a longtime insider who became CEO in March 2024. Zebra rode a pandemic-era surge in warehouse and retail capex into 2022, then ran straight into the 2023 retail and warehouse inventory destocking cycle that hit revenue hard. Project Phoenix, announced in 2024, cut roughly ten percent of the workforce as the business stabilized. Recovery and tougher comparisons are visible in 2024 and 2025, but cyclicality is real and candidates should expect quarterly discipline. The strategic story is the pivot from hardware-first to a hardware-plus-software-plus-AI platform, with machine vision and generative AI for retail and warehouse use cases as the most visible bets. Competition is concentrated and direct: Honeywell's Productivity Solutions and Services group is the biggest rival across scanners, printers, and rugged computing. Datalogic, SATO, TSC, Cognex, Keyence, Sick AG, Impinj, Panasonic Toughbook, and Getac compete in specific lanes. On the workforce software side, Workday, UKG, Quinyx, and Legion press on Workcloud. Manufacturing is largely contract (Flex, Jabil) with some Mexico assembly. Culture is engineering-heavy, mature B2B, and pragmatic — closer to a Midwestern industrial company than a coastal SaaS startup, though the software and AI groups carry a more modern feel.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Apply through careers

    Apply through careers.zebra.com, which runs on Eightfold's AI-powered ATS — the system parses your resume, scores skill overlap, and surfaces internal recommendations to recruiters.

  2. 2
    Build a complete profile rather than relying solely on the uploaded PDF; Eightfo

    Build a complete profile rather than relying solely on the uploaded PDF; Eightfold uses structured profile data to match you against multiple openings, not just the one you applied to.

  3. 3
    Expect an initial recruiter screen within one to three weeks for active roles; q

    Expect an initial recruiter screen within one to three weeks for active roles; quieter periods (post-Project Phoenix headcount discipline) can stretch this.

  4. 4
    Technical roles typically include a hiring manager screen, a technical or domain

    Technical roles typically include a hiring manager screen, a technical or domain panel, and a final loop with cross-functional partners (product, firmware, hardware, supply chain, or services depending on the org).

  5. 5
    For hardware, firmware, and embedded roles plan for deep technical questions on

    For hardware, firmware, and embedded roles plan for deep technical questions on RTOS, Android internals, low-level drivers, RF, or printer mechanics — Zebra hires for depth, not buzzwords.

  6. 6
    Software and cloud roles (Workcloud, MotionWorks, AI vision) tend to follow a mo

    Software and cloud roles (Workcloud, MotionWorks, AI vision) tend to follow a more standard SaaS loop: coding exercise, system design, behavioral, and team fit.

  7. 7
    Sales, customer success, and field engineering roles include territory or accoun

    Sales, customer success, and field engineering roles include territory or account scenario discussions; bring concrete examples of enterprise B2B cycles.

  8. 8
    Reference checks are common for senior roles; expect them to actually call your

    Reference checks are common for senior roles; expect them to actually call your references rather than treat it as a formality.

  9. 9
    Offers usually arrive within one to two weeks after the final loop; relocation i

    Offers usually arrive within one to two weeks after the final loop; relocation is sometimes available for Lincolnshire, Holtsville, San Jose, or international hub roles.

  10. 10
    Background checks and (for some roles) drug screening are standard; internationa

    Background checks and (for some roles) drug screening are standard; international roles add work authorization and sometimes export compliance steps.

Resume Tips for Zebra Technologies

recommended

Mirror the language of the job description — Eightfold's matching engine rewards

Mirror the language of the job description — Eightfold's matching engine rewards literal skill overlap, so if a role lists 'Android Enterprise', use that exact phrase rather than 'mobile device management'.

recommended

Quantify enterprise impact: deployment scale (sites, devices, users), uptime, th

Quantify enterprise impact: deployment scale (sites, devices, users), uptime, throughput, label volume, RFID read rates, or revenue tied to a customer rollout.

recommended

Call out specific industry verticals you have shipped into — retail, warehouse a

Call out specific industry verticals you have shipped into — retail, warehouse and logistics, transportation, healthcare, or manufacturing — because Zebra organizes go-to-market and product around these.

recommended

List ATS-relevant tech explicitly: Android, Linux, C/C++, embedded RTOS, RFID pr

List ATS-relevant tech explicitly: Android, Linux, C/C++, embedded RTOS, RFID protocols (Gen2, ISO 18000-6C), barcode symbologies, ZPL/EPL, MQTT, REST, AWS or Azure, Kubernetes, React, Java, Python.

recommended

For hardware and firmware roles, name the toolchain (Yocto, Buildroot, JTAG, osc

For hardware and firmware roles, name the toolchain (Yocto, Buildroot, JTAG, oscilloscope, Altium, Cadence) and any safety or compliance work (FCC, CE, UL, IEC 60601 for medical).

recommended

For software roles, show production ownership — on-call rotations, SLOs, inciden

For software roles, show production ownership — on-call rotations, SLOs, incident response, and customer-facing escalations land harder than greenfield prototypes.

recommended

Use a clean, single-column, parseable format; Eightfold extracts structured fiel

Use a clean, single-column, parseable format; Eightfold extracts structured fields, and tables, columns, or graphics will degrade your match score.

recommended

Highlight enterprise sales cycles, RFP responses, partner ecosystems (SI, ISV, d

Highlight enterprise sales cycles, RFP responses, partner ecosystems (SI, ISV, distributor) for commercial roles — Zebra sells through a heavy channel motion.

recommended

Include any open source contributions, patents, or conference talks; Zebra has a

Include any open source contributions, patents, or conference talks; Zebra has a meaningful patent portfolio and respects published technical work.

recommended

Keep to one or two pages unless you have a long enterprise track record; recruit

Keep to one or two pages unless you have a long enterprise track record; recruiters at Zebra still read resumes manually after the algorithm filters.

ATS System: Eightfold AI Talent Intelligence Platform

Zebra runs its careers site (careers.zebra.com) on Eightfold's AI-powered talent platform. Eightfold parses resumes into a structured skill graph, scores you against open requisitions, and surfaces internal mobility and similar roles. Recruiters see your match score, inferred skill adjacencies, and suggested alternative roles — meaning a single application can put you in front of multiple hiring managers if your profile is rich.

  • Complete the profile fields after upload; do not rely on the resume parse alone. Eightfold weights structured profile data heavily.
  • Add inferred and adjacent skills the system suggests if they are accurate — this widens your match surface across the requisition catalog.
  • Use exact terminology from the job description; Eightfold scores literal overlap before semantic similarity.
  • Avoid PDF graphics, multi-column layouts, and headers or footers with critical information — they degrade parsing accuracy.
  • Set job alerts and check back; Eightfold continuously re-matches your profile against new postings, so your application stays warm.
  • If you are referred by a current Zebra employee, make sure the referral is logged inside the Eightfold workflow — it is a meaningful signal to recruiters.

Interview Culture

Zebra's interview culture is mature B2B enterprise, not Silicon Valley theater.

Expect polite, structured, and technically substantive conversations. Loops are organized, panels run on time, and feedback is collected through a defined scorecard process rather than informal hallway chats. Hiring managers are typically deep domain experts — printer mechanics, RF engineering, embedded Android, supply chain, or vertical-specific software — and they will probe your actual experience rather than ask brain teasers. For engineering roles, the bar is depth. You will be asked to explain a system you built end to end, including the boring parts: power budgets, bring-up, manufacturing test, field returns, customer escalations, and how you handled the inevitable post-launch defects. Whiteboard coding does happen on software loops but is rarely the main event; system design, debugging case studies, and 'walk me through what went wrong on your last project' carry more weight. Cross-functional collaboration matters because Zebra ships hardware-software-services bundles, so be ready to talk about how you worked with mechanical, firmware, cloud, services, and channel teams. For commercial and field roles, expect scenario-based questions tied to real customer situations — a Walmart rollout, a Fortune 500 pharma deployment, a 3PL warehouse refresh. Concrete numbers and customer names (where you can share them) land well. Behavioral questions skew toward resilience, accountability, and how you handled cyclical headwinds, multi-quarter sales cycles, or organizational change — relevant given the 2023 destocking cycle and Project Phoenix workforce reduction in 2024. Expect at least one conversation about how you operate in a publicly-traded, quarterly-reporting environment.

What Zebra Technologies Looks For

  • Deep domain expertise over breadth — Zebra hires people who have actually shipped hardware, firmware, enterprise software, or large customer rollouts.
  • Comfort with enterprise customer cycles — long sales loops, RFPs, channel partners, and multi-year deployments rather than self-serve product-led growth.
  • Pragmatism and calm under pressure — front-line worker hardware fails in messy real-world environments, and people who panic do not last.
  • Cross-functional collaboration across hardware, firmware, software, services, and channel — siloed specialists struggle here.
  • Vertical fluency in retail, warehouse and logistics, transportation, healthcare, or manufacturing — at least one is usually a plus.
  • Operational discipline — quarterly cadence, financial accountability, and the ability to ship on a schedule customers can plan around.
  • Curiosity about the AI and machine vision pivot — candidates who see the platform direction and can articulate it stand out.
  • Comfort with cyclicality — the 2023 destocking and 2024 Project Phoenix layoffs are part of the recent backstory and candidates who acknowledge it honestly do better than those who pretend it didn't happen.
  • Strong written communication for the distributed and global workforce — Lincolnshire HQ, but engineering and field teams span North America, EMEA, India, and APAC.
  • Bias toward customer outcomes over internal politics — Zebra's culture rewards people who solve the customer's problem rather than win the org chart.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ATS does Zebra Technologies use?
Zebra runs careers.zebra.com on Eightfold's AI-powered talent intelligence platform. Eightfold parses your resume into a structured skill graph and scores you against open requisitions, so a clean, parseable resume and a complete profile both matter.
Where is Zebra Technologies headquartered and where are roles located?
Headquarters is in Lincolnshire, Illinois (Chicago suburbs). Major hubs include Holtsville, NY (legacy Symbol Technologies / Motorola Enterprise site), San Jose, CA (machine vision and software), Bangalore (engineering), and offices across EMEA, APAC, and Latin America. Roles are a mix of on-site, hybrid, and remote depending on function.
Is Zebra Technologies hiring after Project Phoenix?
Yes, but selectively. Project Phoenix in 2024 cut roughly ten percent of headcount after the 2023 retail and warehouse destocking cycle. Hiring resumed as the business stabilized in 2024 and 2025, with an emphasis on software, AI and machine vision, services, and strategic engineering roles.
What is Zebra Technologies' main business?
Zebra makes the hardware and software that front-line workers use: barcode and label printers, rugged Android handheld computers and tablets, barcode and RFID scanners, machine vision systems, and workforce management software (Zebra Workcloud, formerly Reflexis). Customers include Walmart, Amazon, FedEx, UPS, USPS, Walgreens, CVS, hospitals, and global manufacturers.
Who is the CEO of Zebra Technologies?
Bill Burns has been CEO since March 2024, succeeding Anders Gustafsson, who led Zebra from 2007 through 2023. The transition came alongside Project Phoenix and a strategic emphasis on the hardware-plus-software-plus-AI platform direction.
Who are Zebra's biggest competitors?
Honeywell's Productivity Solutions and Services group is the closest direct competitor across scanners, printers, and rugged computing. Datalogic, SATO, TSC, Cognex (machine vision), Keyence, Sick AG, Impinj (RFID), Panasonic Toughbook, and Getac compete in specific lanes. Workday, UKG, Quinyx, and Legion compete with Workcloud.
What languages are useful at Zebra?
English is the primary working language. Spanish is useful for supply chain, Mexico operations, and the Hispanic enterprise customer base. Mandarin helps with China sourcing and customer relationships. German, French, Japanese, and Portuguese are valuable in regional commercial and engineering roles.
Does Zebra Technologies hire new graduates and interns?
Yes, Zebra runs structured intern and early-career programs in engineering (firmware, software, hardware, RF), product, supply chain, finance, and field roles. Programs are concentrated at Lincolnshire, Holtsville, San Jose, and Bangalore. Search careers.zebra.com for 'university' or 'intern' tags.
What technical skills are most in demand at Zebra right now?
Embedded Android, Linux, C/C++, RTOS, RF and antenna design, RFID protocols (Gen2, ISO 18000-6C), machine vision (deep learning, OpenCV, GigE Vision), cloud (AWS, Azure, Kubernetes), Java, Python, React, and enterprise integration patterns. Workforce management and retail analytics also draw significant hiring.
How long does Zebra's interview process take?
Typically three to six weeks from first recruiter screen to offer for individual contributor roles, longer for senior or executive positions. Initial response can take one to three weeks given the structured Eightfold workflow. Hiring is generally calendar-disciplined; if you go silent for more than two weeks, follow up with the recruiter.
What is Zebra Workcloud?
Zebra Workcloud is the rebranded software platform built on the 2020 Reflexis acquisition (~$110M). It covers workforce scheduling, task execution, communications, and analytics for front-line employees in retail, hospitality, and warehouse environments. It is one of Zebra's main software and recurring-revenue bets and a growing area of hiring.
Is Zebra Technologies a good company to work for if I want exposure to AI and machine vision?
Increasingly yes. The Matrox Imaging (2022, ~$140M), Adaptive Vision (2023), and Photoneo investments built a real machine vision capability stack, and generative AI for retail and warehouse use cases is a stated focus. The work is applied — solving real customer problems with constrained hardware — rather than frontier research, which suits engineers who want production impact.
What is the work-life balance and travel expectation at Zebra?
Engineering and software roles are largely standard 40-50 hour weeks with quarterly intensity around launches, customer escalations, and earnings. Field engineering, customer success, and sales roles can require significant travel — 30 to 60 percent — to customer sites, distribution centers, and regional offices. Lincolnshire HQ-based corporate roles have a hybrid expectation; fully remote is available for some software, services, and field roles but is not the default.
How does Zebra handle compensation and equity?
Zebra pays competitively for the enterprise hardware and software market — strong on base salary and benefits, with annual bonus tied to corporate and individual performance, and equity (RSUs) for senior individual contributors and management roles. It is not a startup-style equity story; total compensation is steady, taxable, and predictable, which suits people who value stability and a public-company comp structure.

Open Positions

Zebra Technologies currently has 279 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 279 open positions at Zebra Technologies

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Sources

  1. Zebra Technologies Investor Relations —
  2. Zebra Technologies Careers (Eightfold) —
  3. Zebra Technologies Newsroom —
  4. Zebra Technologies Completes Acquisition of Motorola Solutions' Enterprise Business (2014) —
  5. Zebra Technologies Names Bill Burns CEO (March 2024) —
  6. Zebra Technologies Acquires Reflexis Systems (2020) —
  7. Zebra Technologies Acquires Matrox Imaging (2022) —
  8. Zebra Technologies Acquires Adaptive Vision (2023) —
  9. Zebra Technologies 2024 Annual Report (10-K) —
  10. Eightfold AI Talent Intelligence Platform —
  11. Zebra Workcloud Platform Overview —
  12. Honeywell Productivity Solutions and Services —