Fleet Configuration Manager

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

1d•$120,000 - $165,000

About The Position

The Fleet Configuration Manager sits at the intersection of hardware and business operations, ensuring Zipline’s operational fleet remains process-capable and engineering innovations are deployed to the field in ways that optimize business impact. This cross-functional role works with hardware engineering, field systems engineering, maintenance operations, and business strategy to define, map, and strategically plan the composition of the autonomous aircraft fleet and supporting hardware. The manager oversees fleet variations and ensures new hardware configurations are approved and well-defined.

Requirements

Several years of experience leading complex hardware change deployment, fleet configuration, maintenance planning, new product introduction (NPI), sustaining engineering, or technical operations programs.
Working knowledge of engineering change control, including bills of materials (BOMs), part and revision control, effectivity, engineering change orders (ECOs), compatibility, production cut-ins, and retrofit embodiment.
Strong quantitative judgment covering lifecycle cost, capacity impact, reliability benefit, maintenance burden, inventory exposure, and scenario analysis.
A track record of building and implementing operating processes, including intake, prioritization, decision gates, reviews, communications, and escalation paths.
Exceptional data and record discipline, recognizing that configuration accuracy has operational and potentially regulatory consequences.
Clear written and verbal communication with engineers and business leaders.
Willingness and ability to spend time with field technicians, operators, production teams, and deployed sites to understand fleet allocation impacts.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with reliability engineering, maintainability, spares planning, technical publications, training readiness, and regulatory change incorporation.
SQL, spreadsheet modeling, BI, or other analytical skills sufficient to independently evaluate fleet scenarios.

Responsibilities

Define approved hardware configurations for the P2 Fleet, including ziplines, pods, docks, and dropboxes, and document each configuration’s capabilities and limitations.
Determine the ideal allocation of hardware configurations across sites, partners, and business needs.
Develop methods to track and manage asset configuration locations and life cycles to achieve allocation goals.
Maintain compatibility rules among hardware, software, tooling, spares, and operating environments.
Identify assets that are outside approved configurations for a given location.
Work with Change Deployment to decide whether the commercial fleet should accept configuration changes involving new hardware components.
Determine which serial numbers or fleet populations are affected by a change.