Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Avionics

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

4h•$170,000 - $255,000

About The Position

Zipline is hiring a Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer to own electrical hardware for autonomous aircraft and supporting ground systems. The role spans architecture and design through board bring-up, validation, release, production ramp, and fleet support. The engineer will develop reliable, manufacturable hardware for operation across changing environments, manufacturing variation, field conditions, and rapid product evolution. This is a hands-on, cross-functional position working with electrical, mechanical, firmware, software, manufacturing, test, quality, supply-chain, and operations teams. The engineer will design and debug circuits, guide PCB layout, validate hardware, investigate issues, and carry solutions from prototype through reliable fielded product. The role also includes mentoring engineers and improving design, validation, debugging, and release practices.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience designing and releasing electrical hardware for products that have shipped, flown, operated in the field, or otherwise seen real-world use.
Strong electrical engineering fundamentals across analog, digital, mixed-signal, power, sensing, and communication circuits.
Experience designing PCBAs, including schematic capture, component selection, design reviews, layout guidance, board bring-up, and design verification.
Ability to debug complex electrical issues using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, electronic loads, protocol analyzers, and other lab equipment.
Experience writing and executing test plans for design validation, qualification, production test, or reliability investigations.
Strong root-cause analysis skills and ability to turn ambiguous symptoms into technical conclusions and practical corrective actions.
Working knowledge of PCB layout tradeoffs, signal integrity, power integrity, grounding, EMI/EMC, thermal behavior, and manufacturability.
Ability to collaborate across electrical, mechanical, firmware, software, manufacturing, operations, quality, and supply-chain teams.
Strong ownership and ability to drive a design or issue from an unclear starting point to a released, verified solution.
Clear communication and documentation habits, particularly for decisions affecting safety, reliability, production, or fleet operations.
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with avionics, aerospace, drones, robotics, automotive electronics, satellites, or other high-reliability hardware.
Experience with Altium Designer for schematic capture, PCB layout review, or release package generation.
Experience designing for weight, power consumption, thermal limits, vibration, shock, EMI/EMC, environmental exposure, or high-volume manufacturing.
Experience with Python, MATLAB, or similar tools for test automation, data analysis, or lab-equipment control.
Familiarity with embedded firmware development in C or C++, particularly for board bring-up, diagnostics, or hardware-software integration.
Experience with CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, Ethernet, GNSS, radios, motor-control electronics, battery systems, or sensor interfaces.
Familiarity with aerospace or environmental test practices such as DO-160, HALT, vibration, thermal cycling, or reliability growth testing.

Responsibilities

Own avionics electrical subsystems from concept through design, validation, release, production ramp, and field support.
Design and develop PCBAs for aircraft and ground-support hardware, including digital, analog, sensing, communications, power, and control circuits.
Create and review schematics, select components, define interfaces, guide PCB layout, and ensure designs meet electrical, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing, and operational requirements.
Bring up new boards, write and execute validation plans, analyze test data, and drive design changes based on measured performance.
Lead root-cause investigations for electrical issues identified during bring-up, qualification, manufacturing, flight test, or field operation.
Own corrective-action plans for fleet or production issues, including containment, investigation, design revision, release, and verification.
Partner with firmware and software teams on hardware-software interfaces, sensor integration, communications, diagnostics, and test hooks.
Work with mechanical engineering on packaging, connectorization, cable routing, weight, thermal constraints, environmental exposure, and serviceability.
Collaborate with manufacturing, test, quality, and supply-chain teams to improve yield, reduce downtime, resolve production blockers, and support supplier readiness.
Define requirements, test procedures, design documentation, release packages, and change-control records for avionics hardware.
Support design reviews, failure reviews, and technical tradeoff decisions involving reliability, performance, cost, weight, power, schedule, and manufacturability.
Mentor other engineers and improve electrical design, validation, debugging, and release practices across the team.