Senior Motor Electromagnetic Engineer

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

10h•$135,000 - $200,000

About The Position

Zipline is seeking a Motor Electromagnetic Engineer to develop and own analytical and numerical modeling and validation capabilities for designing, selecting, and optimizing electric machines across its aircraft platforms. The engineer will build a common motor-modeling framework that lets teams explore design spaces, assess performance tradeoffs, and optimize motors in the context of the complete aircraft system. Work includes creating and maintaining electromagnetic models, performance maps, loss models, and scalable design-space datasets from early architecture studies through detailed design and flight validation. The role works across mechanical, thermal, power electronics, controls, aerodynamics, systems, and vehicle-performance engineering. It evaluates how motor characteristics influence aircraft-level range, payload, acoustic performance, thermal margin, reliability, mass, and cost. The position combines electric-machine fundamentals, practical modeling judgment, and the ability to turn simulation results into clear engineering decisions. The successful candidate will establish a reusable modeling and validation foundation for Zipline’s electric machines. This includes developing models and model-validation processes, planning and executing dynamometer tests, correlating simulation with experimental data, and improving model predictive accuracy. The work will support motor-architecture selection, reduce unnecessary design iteration, and optimize motors as integrated aircraft components.

Requirements

Master’s degree or PhD in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, applied physics, or a related field, focused on electric machines, electromagnetics, optimization, or electric powertrains.
Strong understanding of electric-machine fundamentals, including magnetic circuits, winding theory, d-q models, saturation, harmonics, losses, thermal effects, and permanent-magnet behavior.
Significant experience developing and interpreting finite-element and reduced-order electric-machine models.
Experience with Motor-CAD or similar software, such as JMAG, Maxwell, or COMSOL, for electromagnetic, thermal, and performance modeling of electric machines.
Strong proficiency in MATLAB for model development, automation, optimization, data analysis, and visualization.
Experience generating motor maps or reduced-order models for system simulation, controls, or powertrain optimization.
Hands-on experience planning and executing electric-motor dynamometer tests for characterization or model validation.
Experience defining test matrices, selecting measurements and instrumentation, and interpreting experimental data in light of model assumptions.
Experience correlating electromagnetic models against dynamometer or hardware test results and diagnosing model-to-test discrepancies.
Understanding of experimental uncertainty, repeatability, sensor accuracy, and their impact on model validation.
Strong first-principles problem-solving skills and ability to identify and challenge weak modeling assumptions.
Ability to communicate complex technical results clearly across engineering disciplines.
Demonstrated ownership of technically ambiguous projects from problem definition through recommendation and implementation.

Nice To Haves

Experience in aerospace, electric aviation, robotics, automotive traction, or other mass- and efficiency-constrained applications.
Experience optimizing multiple motor types across a common vehicle or product platform.
Experience with Motor-CAD or similar software scripting, MATLAB-based optimization workflows, and automated generation of large motor design spaces.
Familiarity with additional electromagnetic tools such as Ansys Maxwell or JMAG.
Knowledge of motor-control techniques, inverter limitations, field weakening, sensorless control, and fault-tolerant operation.
Experience with high-accuracy motor characterization, including efficiency mapping, back-EMF measurement, torque constant, winding resistance, inductance, loss separation, thermal characterization, or cogging torque measurement.
Familiarity with torque transducers, power analyzers, encoders, temperature instrumentation, data-acquisition systems, and other motor-dynamometer instrumentation.
Familiarity with thermal-network models, computational fluid dynamics, structural analysis, rotor dynamics, or electromagnetic noise and vibration.
Experience with multi-objective optimization, design of experiments, uncertainty quantification, surrogate modeling, or machine-learning-assisted design exploration.
Experience building internal engineering tools, simulation pipelines, databases, or cloud-based computational workflows.
Familiarity with electrical-steel characterization, permanent-magnet properties, AC winding losses, rotor eddy-current losses, and high-speed machine design.
Experience evaluating emerging motor topologies or technologies and determining whether their system-level benefits justify development risk.
Working knowledge of aircraft performance, propeller or fan loading, battery systems, and mission-level energy optimization.

Responsibilities

Develop, validate, and maintain electromagnetic models for propulsion and auxiliary motors.
Build and govern a reusable library of motor models, assumptions, material data, winding definitions, simulation results, and validation evidence.
Generate torque-speed envelopes, efficiency maps, loss breakdowns, voltage and current requirements, flux-linkage and inductance maps, demagnetization limits, and fault-performance data.
Create scalable motor design-space datasets and conduct sensitivity and uncertainty studies across geometry, materials, windings, temperature, tolerances, and operating conditions.
Develop reduced-order and surrogate models for aircraft optimization, mission simulation, controls development, and thermal analysis.
Integrate motor models with inverter, battery, propeller or driven-load, thermal, and aircraft mission models.
Evaluate motor architectures, electromagnetic materials, supplier concepts, and emerging technologies through first-principles analysis, simulation, and test data.
Optimize motor designs for efficiency, mass, torque density, thermal performance, acoustic behavior, controllability, reliability, and cost.
Develop model-validation plans defining test objectives, operating points, measurements, instrumentation accuracy, acceptance criteria, and correlation metrics.
Plan and execute dynamometer experiments to characterize motor performance and validate electromagnetic, loss, and thermal models across relevant operating conditions.
Analyze measurement uncertainty, test repeatability, and simulation-to-test discrepancies, and use findings to improve model assumptions and fidelity.
Work with test engineers to develop instrumentation and test methods that produce high-quality model-correlation and validation data.
Use dynamometer, component, and aircraft test data to calibrate models where appropriate and independently validate their predictive accuracy.
Communicate technical results across engineering disciplines and own ambiguous projects from problem definition through recommendation and implementation.