Head of System Modeling

Zipline • South San Francisco, CA

7d • $190,000 - $230,000

About The Position

About Zipline Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building the first instant logistics system that serves all humans equally. Leveraging expertise in robotics and autonomy, Zipline serves tens of millions of people around the world. Join Zipline and help us to make good on our promise to build an equitable and more resilient global supply chain for billions of people. About The Systems Modeling Team The Systems Modeling Team has tremendous power to shape Zipline’s products. We develop physics-based models and use them to architect and optimize our aircraft, as well as the supporting logistics system. Through simulation, we can rapidly explore a vast array of design options for future products, and we can find ways to wring more performance out of our existing products. Systems Modeling brings diverse teams and fields together (e.g. mechanical, aerodynamics, electromagnetics, electrical, battery chemistry, thermal, controls, fleet operations, economics) to gain new insights. We translate technical conversations into rigorously framed engineering problems. We value asking pertinent questions and generating coherent answers. What You'll Do You will lead a team of high-caliber engineers applying analytical skills at both the product architectural and fleet operations level. Your team’s contributions will guide and accelerate key decisions during many phases of engineering development, and scaling. Importantly, you will challenge assumptions and requirements – especially those which drive the most cost and complexity. You will relentlessly pursue high-quality insights by improving validation processes, checking simulation results with independent hand calculations, safeguarding model inputs, and calling out where model assumptions are weakly supported by data. The fundamental role of your team is to build and maintain models that close the loop between product performance goals and hardware/software requirements. For example, this might consist of an aircraft model with subcomponents for motors, inverters, propellers, wings, batteries, position/orientation controllers and more. You’ll zoom in on the finer points of each subsystem: Should the propulsive motor be mated to a gearbox? How can we design it to supply sufficient torque without overheating, while weighing as little as possible? What type of battery chemistry should be selected, in light of requirements for lifetime, mass, power capability, and energy? You’ll ask critical questions at the system-level: How much range is an acceptable trade-off for payload mass? How does unfavorable weather impact aircraft performance capabilities? You’ll explore the vast space of mission types, sub-system faults, and other key events to understand their impact on the system. Your team also optimizes the operational efficiency of the Zipline fleet, directly impacting our customers. What is the smallest number of aircraft that can effectively support a given service area? How might we maximize deliveries per unit hardware by identifying and eliminating bottlenecks, or by adding sophistication to our aircraft dispatching strategy? How should we manage battery charging, given competing objectives of battery life versus charging speed? Is it best to avoid windier parts of the day, or is it ultimately too costly to sit idle? Your team’s model-driven analysis will link operational decisions with customer-facing outcomes.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience building mathematical models and modeling frameworks, across languages, methods, and tools
• Deep programming experience in Python, MATLAB, or Rust
• An understanding of numerical methods
• Strong convictions about the defining attributes of high-quality code tools
• Demonstrated experience integrating simulation tools across platforms and software languages
• A mastery of engineering and physics fundamentals: Energy and power Dynamics (kinematics, forces, moments, acceleration/rotation) Fluids and aerodynamics Heat transfer and thermodynamics
• Experience in fleet-level simulations and optimization Range Modeling Throughput Modeling Network Modeling
• Fluency in system-level optimization
• An ability to distill an open-ended topic into a rigorously framed problem statement
• Familiarity with a variety of solution techniques, and the ability to identify an appropriate technique for a given problem
• Comfort with empiricism
• An ability to interpret complex datasets that span multiple physical realms
• Experience designing test campaigns for model validation
• Familiarity with practical considerations in embedded algorithm design
• Excellent communication skills, particularly in distilling multidimensional solution spaces into straightforward insights
• Demonstrated leadership attributes
• Awareness of the most critical needs of the company, and motivation to seek out unsolved problems
• An ability to drive progress on many projects at once, and to dynamically prioritize projects in a fast-evolving environment
• Courage to make tough decisions in the face of imperfect information
• Adherence to thorough and well-organized documentation
• Patience to teach technical skills to others, while remaining open-minded to learning new skills yourself
• Empathy and understanding for the people you work with
• 10 years related industry experience
• BS in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or similar discipline

Nice To Haves

• MS strongly preferred

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of high-caliber engineers applying analytical skills at both the product architectural and fleet operations level.
• Guide and accelerate key decisions during many phases of engineering development, and scaling.
• Challenge assumptions and requirements – especially those which drive the most cost and complexity.
• Relentlessly pursue high-quality insights by improving validation processes, checking simulation results with independent hand calculations, safeguarding model inputs, and calling out where model assumptions are weakly supported by data.
• Build and maintain models that close the loop between product performance goals and hardware/software requirements.
• Optimize the operational efficiency of the Zipline fleet, directly impacting our customers.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager