Manufacturing Test Engineer

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

5h•$125,000 - $145,000•Onsite

About The Position

Zipline is hiring a Manufacturing Test Engineer to own electrical, functional, and automated test systems that verify aircraft, docks, delivery pods, and subassembly hardware at production scale. The role leads end-to-end test-system delivery for high-throughput factory floors, supporting product iterations while prioritizing safety, traceability, and measurable improvements in yield and deployment time. Production testing directly affects fleet uptime, field reliability, and customer deliveries. The role is part of the manufacturing engineering team, with its specific focus shaped by the candidate’s strengths and team needs. It is based at Zipline’s South San Francisco manufacturing site and follows an onsite-first approach with regular factory-floor presence. Travel to other Zipline sites or vendor locations may be required for launches and validations.

Requirements

At least 2 years of experience building production test systems, automated test equipment, or end-of-line testers for electro-mechanical or mechatronic products, with demonstrated ownership of multiple shipped tester programs.
Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechatronics, Mechanical, or Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience.
Hands-on skill with instrumentation, signal measurement, power delivery, harnessing, connectors, sensors, actuators, and PCBA-level electrical debugging.
Strong test-automation experience; Python is preferred, along with experience using LabVIEW, TestStand, or embedded test frameworks and integrating data acquisition systems, oscilloscopes, DMMs, power supplies, and electronic loads.
Proficiency with embedded and product interfaces, including CAN, UART, Ethernet, I2C, SPI, and USB, and strategies for validating communications and firmware-hardware interactions.
A record of using data-driven technical work to improve production metrics such as yield, cycle time, false failures, tester utilization, or GR&R, with ownership of metrics reporting.
Comfort coordinating cross-functionally, managing vendor builds, and supporting FAT/SAT and production qualification.
Rigorous attention to safety and traceability; decisive technical judgment under production pressure; hands-on test and debug capability; and focus on measurable outcomes.
Experience working directly on manufacturing floors during launches and escalations, and willingness to spend significant onsite time supporting shifts, debugging, and qualifying equipment.

Nice To Haves

5–7 years of relevant experience.

Responsibilities

Own assigned electrical, functional, and automated production testers and calibration stations from requirements through build, installation, validation, production release, and sustainment.
Define test coverage, pass/fail limits, golden-unit strategies, GR&R, capability targets, and release criteria with Design, Firmware, Quality, and Operations.
Integrate harnesses, data acquisition systems, sensors, actuators, power systems, safety interlocks, and mechanical fixtures to meet throughput and cycle-time needs.
Build automation and data pipelines using Python, LabVIEW/TestStand, or equivalent tools for repeatable test execution, data logging, MES/MFG integration, and dashboards.
Troubleshoot factory-floor production escalations, including PCBA-level electrical failures, tester instability, fixture issues, software bugs, and product/tester correlation; distinguish product defects from measurement or tester problems and validate corrective changes before release.
Improve first-pass yield, false-fail rate, tester uptime, utilization, and per-unit cycle time; set targets and report progress monthly.
Coordinate launch readiness with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Technicians, Operations, and vendors, including requirements, validation plans, training, calibration schedules, spares, change control, vendor builds, FAT/SAT, and production qualification.
Evaluate and deploy scalable tester architectures and automation that reduce operator steps and touch time and standardize interfaces across production lines.
Maintain test procedures, maintenance and calibration plans, validation records, and change-control artifacts required for production readiness and traceability.