Mechanical Design Engineer - Droid SMI

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

2d•$135,000 - $225,000

About The Position

Zipline is seeking a Mechanical Design Engineer to join their deeply cross-disciplinary hardware team building the next generation of their delivery droid, EV3. This role involves end-to-end ownership of droid subsystems, from initial concept and design through to manufacturing and production ramp. The engineer will collaborate with industrial designers, systems engineers, and other cross-functional teams to translate design intent into a functional, reliable, and manufacturable product. This position requires a strong understanding of mechanical design principles, manufacturing processes, and a hands-on approach to problem-solving. The droid is a critical customer-facing component of Zipline's delivery system, requiring it to be beautiful, cheap, quiet, weatherproof, thermally stable, and reliable for tens of thousands of flight cycles. The engineer will be responsible for defining requirements, developing architectures, detailed design, prototyping, validation, DFM, tooling, and supporting production. They will also design necessary test fixtures and assembly aids to ensure consistent production at scale. Occasional travel to international suppliers and manufacturing partners is expected.

Requirements

BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Product Design Engineering, or a related field.
4+ years of hands-on experience delivering physical products to production.
A track record of owning at least one complex subassembly or full product end-to-end - from requirements through concept, prototype, validation, tooling, and production.
Demonstrated CAD fluency for system-level ownership (Siemens NX preferred; strong Creo, SolidWorks, or CATIA experience translates).
Strong fundamentals: load estimation, hand calcs, tolerance analysis, FEA, GD&T, and clean CAD practices.
Practical knowledge of manufacturing methods: injection molding, thermoplastic and thermoset composites, EPP foam molding, stamping, CNC machining, and associated tooling.
Hands-on prototyping instincts - comfortable in a machine shop, at a 3D printer, and building a first article.

Nice To Haves

Real experience collaborating with industrial designers on a consumer-visible or user-facing product, and a genuine appreciation for what ID brings to the table.
The judgment to know when to iterate, when to freeze, and when the design is telling you something the requirements got wrong.
Prior work on a consumer-visible hardware product where industrial design was a first-class stakeholder.
Experience designing test fixtures, assembly aids, or end-of-line testers alongside the products they support.
Experience carrying a design through tooling kickoff, T0 samples, and production ramp at a contract manufacturer.
Familiarity with electronics integration - flex circuit routing, PCB mounting, thermal control, connectors, sealing.
Experience with high-cycle mechanical reliability and design-for-reliability practices.
Prior work in drone, robotics, automotive, medical device, or consumer electronics NPI.

Responsibilities

Own subsystems of the droid end-to-end, from architecture, detailed design, prototyping, validation, DFM, tooling, and production ramp.
Partner directly with industrial design team to translate ID intent into engineered product - surfacing, split lines, materials, finishes, color, tactile feel, without sacrificing manufacturability, cost, or reliability.
Define and negotiate requirements for subsystems, working with systems engineering, operations, and cross-functional hardware leads.
Design in CAD (Siemens NX) with fluency to iterate through architectures and designs quickly.
Use hand calcs, FEA, first-principles thinking and prototyping to bound problems, size parts, and down select between options.
Design test fixtures, assembly aids, and inspection tooling for subsystem production and validation, partnering with test engineering.
Drive parts, assemblies, and BOMs through release, revision control, and change management.
Work closely with electrical, firmware, thermal, and manufacturing engineers to ensure tight integration of the mechanical design within the system.
Travel occasionally to suppliers and manufacturing partners to qualify processes, resolve tooling issues, and support production ramps.