Senior/ Staff Mechanical Design Engineer, Motor
About The Position
Zipline builds autonomous delivery aircraft and ground systems that operate daily in varying field conditions. You will design hardware that directly impacts flight performance, fleet reliability, manufacturability, and our ability to scale autonomous delivery around the world. The Powertrain Engineering team is responsible for delivering high-performance propulsion systems for Zipline’s next-generation autonomous aircraft. You will own the mechanical design, analysis, and integration of electric motors and related assemblies from concept through production, balancing performance, reliability, manufacturability, thermal management, and mass efficiency. You will lead the design of rotor-stator assemblies, housings, cooling systems, controller enclosures, and aircraft interfaces that must withstand demanding dynamic, thermal, and structural environments.
Requirements
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or a related field; M.S. preferred.
- 5+ years of experience designing mechanical components for electric machines, motors, or high-speed rotating equipment.
- Demonstrated ownership of complex electromechanical products through design, analysis, prototyping, validation, and production.
- Expert CAD skills and experience owning complex mechanical assemblies and production drawings. Experience with NX, CATIA, Creo, or equivalent.
- Strong engineering fundamentals, including structural and thermal FEA, heat transfer, materials selection, trade studies, tolerance analysis, and hand calculations.
- Experience with structural and thermal analysis tools such as ANSYS, Nastran, Abaqus, or equivalent.
- Demonstrated understanding of integrated cooling strategies for thermally constrained electromechanical systems.
- Familiarity with motor assembly processes, manufacturing Familiarity methods, and design guidelines.
- Experience planning and executing durability, environmental, vibration, shock, waterproofing, or reliability testing.
- Hands-on prototyping and test fixture development experience.
- Working knowledge of GD&T and tolerance stack analysis.
- Experience with design-for-manufacturing, design-for-assembly, DFMEA, and risk management frameworks.
- Familiarity with electromagnetic design principles and electric motor design workflows.
- Experience with high-torque-density or high-efficiency permanent-magnet synchronous motors.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs and collaborate across disciplines.
Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end mechanical delivery of electric motors and related assemblies from requirements → concept → design → analysis → prototype → validation → release → production.
- Design rotor-stator subassemblies, motor housings, cooling solutions, controller enclosures, mounting interfaces, and other propulsion hardware.
- Collaborate with electromagnetic, structural, thermal, controls, firmware, power electronics, and systems engineers to ensure successful aircraft-level integration.
- Perform and support system-level FEA/CAE and engineering analyses, including rotor dynamics, propeller interactions, motor thermals and magnetics, mounting vibration loads, transient conditions, steady-state performance, and hand calculations.
- Develop mechanical architectures that meet aircraft performance, structural, thermal, vibration, shock, waterproofing, and reliability requirements.
- Create production-ready CAD assemblies, detailed drawings, GD&T, and tolerance stack-ups for motor components and assemblies.
- Lead design-for-manufacturing and design-for-assembly activities with internal teams, suppliers, and manufacturing partners.
- Support prototyping, supplier development, validation, and high-volume production readiness for motor hardware.
- Define and execute durability and reliability test plans, including load cycling, waterproofing, mechanical shock, vibration, and thermal testing.
- Design supporting test fixtures, analyze failures and test results, and drive corrective actions through design improvements.
- Lead cost-down efforts that improve manufacturability, reduce product cost, and enable production and operations scaling.
Benefits
- medical, dental and vision insurance
- paid time off
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
