Head of Global Supplier Industrialization

Zipline International•San Francisco, CA

32d

About The Position

Zipline is scaling drone production and flight operations by more than 20× over the next three years while maintaining best-in-class safety and reliability. You will own the entire supplier industrialization and supplier development engineering functions — building the team, processes, tools, and culture that make Zipline's massive scale-up possible without compromising quality, delivery, or cost. This role reports to the VP of Supply Chain, and will have 10-15 direct reports.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Aerospace, Manufacturing, or Electrical Engineering.
8-15+ years in supplier quality, supplier development, or manufacturing/industrialization engineering in safety-critical or regulated hardware.
8+ years directly managing and scaling technical teams of 10+ engineers (hiring, mentoring, org design, span-of-control optimization).
Multiple end-to-end APQP (“Advanced Product Quality Planning”) and PPAP (“Production Part Approval Process”) cycles personally led from kick-off through PSW approval in aerospace, automotive Tier-1, medical device (Class II/III), or high-volume consumer electronics.
Proven track record taking at least three complex suppliers from prototype/low-rate ( 100K units/yr) while achieving Cp/Cpk ≥ 1.67 and GR&R (“Gage Repeatability & Reproducibility”) < 10% on critical characteristics.
Expert-level command of GD&T (“Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing”), MSA (“Measurement System Analysis”), SPC (“Statistical Process Control”), FAI per AS9102, PFMEA, Control Plans, and DOE (“Design of Experiments”).
Hands-on experience building and defending bottom-up should-cost models that drove >15% cost reduction on programs exceeding $50M annual spend.
Demonstrated ability to create new processes and tools in high-growth, ambiguous environments (startups or business units that 5×-20×'d revenue in

Responsibilities

Full accountability for supplier readiness: every new program and every major ramp must pass through your organization's technical gates before volume commitments are made.
Build and lead a world-class team of Supplier Quality Engineers (SQEs), Industrialization Engineers, and NPI/Development Engineers
Design and enforce Zipline's global Supplier Industrialization Framework from first principles:
Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP)
Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) with Zipline-specific submission requirements (FAI (“First Article Inspection”), PSW (“Part Submission Warrant”), dimensional reports, material certifications, process capability, etc.)
Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA) moderation and risk buy-off methodology
Run-at-Rate and ramp validation protocols
Process capability roadmaps (Cpk targets, statistical process controls)
Supplier scorecard system (OTD (“On-Time Delivery”), PPM (“Parts Per Million” defect rate), capacity utilization, cost-reduction delivery, risk)
Digital interface collaboration with Software leadership to ensure issue tickets and RCCA are documented and routed back to suppliers
Creation of robust, first-principles based should-cost modeling methodology. Build and maintain bottoms-up, parametric should-cost models for every critical commodity (carbon-fiber aero structures, high power density Li-ion battery packs, brushless propulsion motors, avionics/powertrain PCBAs, precision-machined flight-critical parts, ground systems hardware, etc). Your models will be the source of truth for commercial negotiation benchmarking, make-vs-buy decisions, and annual cost-reduction targets.
Lead technical deep dives with suppliers on Design for Manufacturability/Assembly (DFM/A), automation ROI, tooling investment, and value-engineering initiatives driven directly from should-cost models.
Develop dynamic capacity modeling tools that forecast supplier output 12-36 months forward under multiple demand scenarios, including the rate improvement action tracking systems needed to ensure industrialization risks are understood and mitigated
Act as the final technical gatekeeper in Production Readiness Reviews (PRRs) and PPAP/FAI sign-off