Flight Test Operator, Esparto

Zipline•Esparto, CA

13h•Onsite

About The Position

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service, on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. They design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Their system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back, with over 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown. As a Flight Test Operator, the critical task is testing new and existing systems to ensure safe and reliable development. This involves preflighting and launching aircraft, performing repair and maintenance on aircraft and ground systems, and conducting tests on new hardware and software. The role also includes improving processes, building and testing prototypes for next-generation tech, collecting data, and providing detailed technical feedback to engineering and operations teams to enhance system safety and intelligence. The work directly improves the reliable availability of medical products and supplies globally.

Requirements

Enjoy work that gets you out from behind a desk, in the field, and working with our hardware and software in action.
Experience in commercial aviation or aviation maintenance.
Enjoy troubleshooting and are comfortable with electromechanical build and repair projects.
Excited to work outdoors, at an open-air hangar in the rugged foothills of Northern California, and would be happy doing so for about 85% of the day.
Thrive in an autonomous, unpredictable, and dynamic environment where you identify what needs to happen and get it done with very little oversight.
Have the vigilance and focus to conduct extended daily flight operations in a safe manner and with a focus on optimizing on a daily basis.
Lead by example, and enjoy the satisfaction of collaborating with a dedicated team on a common goal.
Have great writing skills and don't let failures or progress go undocumented.
Are meticulous and process-oriented by nature.
Are able to lift up to 25kg objects regularly.
Must be willing to work some nights/weekends.
Must be a US citizen or Permanent Resident.
Must be able to relocate to Yolo County, CA.

Nice To Haves

An A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) certification.
Prior flight test or hobbyist flight experience with Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones, remote control aircraft, etc).
Some experience with Unix/Linux based operating systems (command line experience is a strong plus).
Experience with camera systems, surveying, and aerial photography.
Excited about regularly traveling domestically and internationally.

Responsibilities

Assembling, preflighting, launching, and recovering unmanned aircraft in order to test and optimize Zipline's operational systems and validate new engineering changes as well as software and hardware in the early stages of development.
Maintaining the existing fleet of aircraft and ground equipment, as well as maintaining new systems we are building for function-specific flight tests.
Running tests to validate system improvements, new technology for performance and design validation, and new processes.
Performing tests and demonstrations related to US FAA Type Certification.
Looking for opportunities to continuously improve our processes, safety protocols, our hardware and software, and make operations easier and more efficient for operations centers around the world.
Providing detailed feedback to design engineers.
Supporting Zipline's efforts to scale our operations to hundreds of distribution centers around the world.
Supporting flight operations at different test sites as needed.
Traveling up to 25% domestically and internationally, surveying sites or training new flight operators on best practices.
Identifying and scouting sites for field data collection campaigns in support of multiple teams and goals (for certain roles).