Senior Staff / Manager - Ground Systems Project Engineering

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

1d•$160,000 - $225,000

About The Position

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. Zipline is looking for a Sr Staff Engineer or Engineering Manager to build and lead a generalist engineering function for Ground Systems Deployments. Project Engineering will attack a broad set of practical technical problems across mechanical, electrical, civil, structural, site infrastructure, construction, serviceability, deployment execution, new product introduction, process improvement, and field feedback. This role is for someone who is technically strong, highly tactical, and comfortable solving problems that do not fit neatly inside one discipline. You will lead engineers who can move from a field issue to a design improvement, from a construction blocker to a technical trade study, from a new hardware deployment to a launch-readiness plan, and from a recurring site problem to a better upstream standard or product requirement. The function will also own the coordination needed when new hardware products are deployed on-site. Project Engineering will work across Engineering, Product, Operations, Construction, Service Operations, Launch, Supply Chain, and external partners to make sure new site hardware can be designed, built, installed, commissioned, operated, maintained, and improved successfully. The right candidate combines technical innovation with process development and continuous improvement. This function should solve urgent project problems effectively while also making the system better over time: fewer repeated issues, clearer technical ownership, stronger design inputs, better field feedback loops, better NPI readiness, and practical engineering tools that improve speed and quality.

Requirements

Experience in project engineering, field engineering, infrastructure engineering, systems engineering, construction engineering, facilities engineering, product-to-field engineering, NPI, operations engineering, or a similarly broad technical role.
Strong generalist engineering judgment across several relevant domains: mechanical, electrical, civil, structural, site infrastructure, construction, reliability, serviceability, commissioning, operations, or product deployment.
Experience leading engineers or technical project teams, ideally in a projects-based environment where priorities change and solutions must be practical.
Experience coordinating new hardware, infrastructure, or product introductions into field, construction, operations, service, or customer environments.
Demonstrated ability to build feedback loops that turn field issues, construction lessons, service pain points, and operational learnings into upstream product, design, engineering, or process improvements.
Demonstrated ability to solve ambiguous technical problems quickly, communicate tradeoffs clearly, and drive decisions with imperfect information.
Experience creating process improvements, technical standards, design checklists, NPI readiness mechanisms, review processes, or feedback loops that reduce repeated problems.
Comfort working close to the field: construction sites, operating sites, service teams, launch teams, vendors, consultants, technicians, and upstream engineering teams.
A track record of combining technical innovation with operational practicality. You can invent a better answer, but you also know when a simple robust solution is the right one.
Strong communication with engineers, product teams, construction managers, design managers, operations leaders, service leaders, technicians, external consultants, and senior stakeholders.
High ownership, low ego, and the ability to create clarity when multiple teams could plausibly own a problem.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the Ground Systems Project Engineering function as a tactical, multidisciplinary engineering team supporting site design, construction, deployment, launch, service operations, NPI, process improvement, and field feedback.
Own technical problem-solving for cross-disciplinary issues that span mechanical, electrical, civil, structural, site infrastructure, constructability, serviceability, installation, commissioning, operations, and field execution.
Own the site-facing new product introduction process for new ground-system hardware, coordinating across Engineering, Product, Operations, Construction, Service Operations, Launch, Supply Chain, and external partners.
Ensure new hardware products are ready for real site deployment, including design inputs, installability, commissioning plans, serviceability, safety, documentation, training needs, spares, tooling, handoffs, and operational readiness.
Lead engineers through fast technical investigations, trade studies, root-cause analysis, field issue resolution, design reviews, NPI readiness reviews, and practical recommendations.
Build and maintain feedback loops from Construction, Operations, Service Operations, Launch, and existing sites so lessons from fielded products, site designs, and deployment processes are captured and fed directly back to upstream engineering, design, product, and operations stakeholders.
Convert repeated project, construction, operations, and service issues into better standards, templates, design criteria, product requirements, checklists, test plans, training content, and engineering guidance.
Create lightweight processes that improve engineering quality and execution speed: intake mechanisms, prioritization rules, technical review cadence, NPI readiness gates, decision records, field feedback loops, issue triage, and lessons-learned routines.
Support site-specific technical decisions where standard guidance does not fully apply, balancing safety, cost, schedule, reliability, maintainability, serviceability, and speed.
Help define when an issue should be solved by Project Engineering, Product Engineering, Design Execution, Design Concepts, Construction, Service Operations, Operations, Launch, or an external consultant.
Build a culture of practical engineering: technically rigorous, field-aware, fast-moving, improvement-oriented, and focused on getting durable solutions into real sites.
Develop the team and operating model needed to support more sites, more metros, higher deployment velocity, new hardware introductions, and increasing technical complexity.