Senior Motor Dyno Engineer

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

10h•$125,000 - $240,000

About The Position

Zipline is seeking a Senior Motor Dyno Engineer to design, build, commission, and own electric-motor dynamometer systems supporting motor development, supplier quality, and reliability validation. The role encompasses characterization dynos that generate accurate motor-performance data and support model correlation, inspection dynos that enable repeatable supplier quality measurements, and durability dynos that reproduce application-representative loads to assess motor life and failure mechanisms. The engineer owns the full test-system lifecycle, from requirements definition and hardware selection to mechanical and electrical integration, CAD, controls, data acquisition, safety systems, commissioning, and ongoing operation. The role works closely with motor design, reliability, power electronics, controls, mechanical, thermal, systems, manufacturing, and supplier-quality teams. It also establishes shared software, interfaces, and workflows so engineers can discover, configure, run, and analyze tests consistently across new and existing dynos.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mechatronics, controls engineering, or a related field.
Experience designing, commissioning, or operating electric-motor, powertrain, or rotating-equipment dynamometers.
Demonstrated ownership of complex test systems from initial requirements through hardware bring-up and sustained operation.
Strong electromechanical integration skills across mechanical hardware, electrical systems, instrumentation, controls, and software.
Experience selecting and integrating torque transducers, encoders, power analyzers, thermocouples, RTDs, vibration sensors, and data-acquisition systems.
Proficiency in Python for test automation, instrument control, data processing, analysis, and visualization.
Experience with industrial communication protocols and instrument interfaces such as CAN, EtherCAT, Ethernet/IP, Modbus, serial, or SCPI.
Strong understanding of electric motors, inverters, torque-speed operation, efficiency measurement, thermal behavior, and common motor failure modes.
Experience with closed-loop speed, torque, current, or power control of motor-test systems.
Knowledge of test measurement accuracy, calibration, repeatability, uncertainty, and measurement-system analysis.
Experience designing safe test systems involving rotating equipment, high voltage, high current, stored energy, and thermal hazards.
Strong troubleshooting skills and ability to diagnose interactions between hardware, software, controls, and instrumentation.
Ability to communicate clearly through test specifications, schematics, procedures, reports, and design reviews.
Ability to work effectively in a hands-on development environment and support test systems on the lab floor.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mechatronics, controls, or a related discipline.
Experience developing dynos for aerospace, electric aviation, automotive traction, robotics, or other high-performance electric-drive applications.
Experience with National Instruments hardware, LabVIEW, MATLAB, Simulink, dSPACE, Speedgoat, or real-time control systems.
Experience with high-accuracy motor characterization, including efficiency mapping, loss separation, back-EMF measurement, cogging torque, torque ripple, and thermal characterization.
Experience with motor NVH characterization and diagnostics, including vibration and acoustic measurements, spectral analysis, FFTs, order tracking and extraction, and identification of speed- and load-dependent excitation mechanisms.
Familiarity with signal-processing workflows for rotating machinery and experience correlating measured frequency content with motor electrical orders, mechanical orders, and structural resonances.
Experience with reliability engineering, accelerated life testing, Weibull analysis, damage accumulation, and failure-mode-based test development.
Familiarity with vibration, noise, rotor dynamics, bearing analysis, and high-speed rotating equipment.
Experience translating duty-cycle or field-load data into representative laboratory tests.
Experience developing production or supplier quality test equipment, including gauge R&R, golden units, limit setting, and test-system correlation.
Experience working with motor suppliers or deploying test equipment into supplier facilities.
Familiarity with inverter calibration, motor controls, regenerative power systems, battery emulators, and DC power supplies.
Experience with CAD, tolerance analysis, shaft alignment, fixture design, and rotating-equipment balancing.
Familiarity with functional safety, machinery safety, and laboratory electrical-safety standards.

Responsibilities

Define requirements and architectures for motor characterization, inspection, and durability dynamometers.
Design, build, commission, and maintain dyno systems for propulsion and auxiliary motors.
Select and integrate motors, load machines, inverters, torque transducers, speed sensors, power analyzers, thermal instrumentation, cooling systems, fixtures, and data-acquisition hardware.
Develop mechanical interfaces, shafting, couplings, guarding, alignment strategies, and structural systems for safe and accurate testing.
Design electromechanical systems including low-voltage power distribution, grounding, shielding, interlocks, emergency stops, and fault protection.
Develop automated test sequences, supervisory controls, data acquisition, and post-processing tools using Python and related software platforms.
Establish a common user interface and software architecture across the motor-dyno ecosystem, including standardized data access, test-profile programming, reusable test-profile libraries, and common workflows.
Build shared tools that enable engineers to discover, configure, execute, and analyze dyno tests consistently without dyno-specific knowledge or bespoke workflows.
Generate motor maps and test datasets to validate electromagnetic, thermal, controls, and system-level models.
Develop supplier-deployable inspection dynos with repeatable test procedures, clear pass/fail metrics, and appropriate measurement controls.
Design and build test systems that reproduce application-representative torque, speed, electrical, thermal, vibration, and transient-load profiles.
Develop operating procedures, maintenance plans, commissioning documentation, and safety reviews.
Improve dyno utilization, test throughput, data quality, and operational reliability through automation and standardization.
Provide technical guidance to domestic and international suppliers, engineers, and technicians, and serve as a subject-matter expert for electric-motor testing.