Production Equipment & Tooling Engineer

Zipline • South San Francisco, CA

3h • $105,000 - $150,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Zipline is seeking a Production Equipment & Tooling Engineer for its Manufacturing Engineering team, based at its Coop manufacturing site in South San Francisco. The role owns the design and deployment of fixtures, workstations, mechanical tooling, and end-of-line test equipment used to manufacture autonomous delivery aircraft and their subsystems, including aircraft assemblies, battery packs, dock components, and flight-critical hardware. The equipment directly affects production throughput, first-pass yield, assembly cycle time, maintenance uptime, fleet readiness, and safety-critical performance. The position’s specific focus will reflect the candidate’s strengths and the team’s needs.

The engineer is responsible for equipment and tooling projects from requirements through production release and sustainment. This includes CAD and drawing development, vendor fabrication oversight, equipment build and commissioning, production handoff, and ongoing maintenance. The role is site-based, with regular on-site presence during standard manufacturing shifts, occasional off-hours commissioning, and up to 15% travel to vendor or field sites. Weekend or evening work may be needed during critical releases.

Requirements

• At least 2 years designing production equipment, fixtures, or custom automation in a high-volume or fast-ramping manufacturing environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent practical experience.
• Demonstrated mastery of GD&T, tolerance analysis, mechanism design, material selection, and failure-mode thinking for assembly tooling.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD; Siemens NX is preferred, while SolidWorks or Creo experience is acceptable with strong intent to learn NX.
• Hands-on experience commissioning equipment on a factory floor, including fabrication support, build, debugging, testing, and operator training.
• Practical knowledge of pneumatics, actuators, sensors, linear motion, machine guarding, and industrial electrical interfaces used in tooling and small automation.
• Track record of delivering quantitative outcomes such as cycle time, uptime, first-pass yield, or cost per unit, and making trade-offs among throughput, reliability, and maintainability.
• Ability to coordinate vendor builds and conduct acceptance testing against technical drawings and quality assurance criteria.
• Comfort spending most of the work week on-site; the role requires regular presence at the South San Francisco manufacturing site during standard manufacturing shifts.
• Availability for occasional off-hours commissioning and up to 15% travel to vendor or field sites.
• High ownership of safety and reliability, decisive technical judgment under schedule pressure, comfort with ambiguity and rapid iteration, and willingness to escalate and resolve issues affecting fleet readiness.

Nice To Haves

• 5–7 years of relevant experience is preferred.
• Experience with aerospace, drones, medical devices, or safety-critical electro-mechanical products is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own equipment requirements, acceptance criteria, production handoff, and sustainment to keep tooling safe, available, and maintainable through production ramps.
• Lead end-to-end production equipment and tooling projects for aircraft and electro-mechanical subsystems, including requirements, Siemens NX CAD, detailed drawings, vendor fabrication oversight, build, commissioning, and production release.
• Improve tooling availability, manual assembly cycle time, and first-pass yield against stated production targets.
• Design and install alignment fixtures, press and torque tooling, ergonomic operator stations, poka-yoke devices, handling and transport fixtures, and automated end-of-line test rigs for aircraft, battery packs, and docks.
• Debug equipment on-line and perform rapid root-cause analysis during launches and production ramps; support weekend or evening commissioning during critical releases as needed.
• Develop and apply tooling design standards, GD&T practices, tolerance stacks, and material and process selections that meet safety and maintainability requirements.
• Coordinate with Design Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Test Engineering, and Field Operations to align tooling scope, test requirements, and production schedules.
• Manage fabricator and vendor relationships, including writing technical RFQs, evaluating proposals, verifying vendor quality control, and performing acceptance testing during build and after installation.
• Support equipment fabrication, build, debugging, testing, and operator training on the factory floor.

Benefits

• The total compensation package may include equity compensation, discretionary annual or performance bonuses, sales incentives, medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, and paid time off.

What This Job Offers

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