Prototype Technician - New Products

Zipline • South San Francisco, CA

3d

About The Position

Zipline’s New Products team invents our next generation of systems. We’re looking for exceptional prototypers and makers who can help turn new ideas into real hardware and enable entirely new aircraft capabilities. We work across aircraft, mechanisms, electrical systems, ground equipment, and experimental test hardware.

Your role is to create hardware that has never existed before. You are equally comfortable building a rough mockup from cardboard and 3D prints, fabricating a flight-quality prototype, debugging a mechanism, repairing a composite structure, or troubleshooting a wire harness. Designs evolve quickly, and the fastest path to learning is often to build something, test it, understand what failed, and build the next version.

As a Prototype Technician, you will work closely with engineers and designers to translate concepts into physical prototypes. You will have significant autonomy in deciding how to build things, what tools and processes to use, and how to improve designs as you uncover problems.

Requirements

• Broad hands-on fabrication experience across several disciplines, such as machining, welding, composites, electrical harnessing, soldering, additive manufacturing, or sheet-metal fabrication.
• Strong mechanical intuition and the ability to troubleshoot unfamiliar electromechanical hardware when failure modes are unclear.
• Ability to work from incomplete drawings or early concepts and independently determine the practical details needed to build and test hardware.
• Experience building and troubleshooting prototype electrical systems, including sensors, wiring, actuators, motors, connectors, or measurement equipment.
• Judgment to balance craftsmanship with learning speed, knowing when a rough prototype is sufficient and when a careful assembly is required.
• Clear communication and disciplined documentation of important changes, discoveries, and failures.
• Strong safety awareness around experimental aircraft, batteries, motors, machinery, and other high-energy systems; experience in aerospace, automotive, robotics, motorsports, or industrial equipment is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Build first-of-their-kind prototypes for aircraft, mechanisms, electrical systems, ground equipment, and experimental hardware.
• Translate sketches, CAD, and early engineering concepts into functional hardware using appropriate materials and processes.
• Create mockups and flight-quality assemblies, selecting the level of fidelity needed to answer each design question.
• Fabricate mechanical parts and composite structures using machining, welding, sheet metal, hand tools, additive manufacturing, and prototype tooling.
• Assemble, troubleshoot, modify, and repair complex electromechanical systems, including harnesses, sensors, actuators, motors, and connectors.
• Instrument prototypes with sensors, wiring, DAQ systems, and measurement equipment; support testing, diagnose failures, and implement improvements in subsequent builds.
• Document builds, configurations, repairs, failures, and lessons learned; provide feedback on manufacturability, assembly, serviceability, reliability, and design simplicity.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed