Senior/Staff Power Electronics Hardware Reliability Engineer

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

14h

About The Position

Zipline is building autonomous aircraft and ground infrastructure that must operate safely and reliably across demanding environments, high utilization, and long service lives with minimal maintenance. As a Senior or Staff Electrical Hardware Reliability Engineer focused on power electronics, you will serve as the reliability technical lead for some of Zipline’s most critical high-power electrical systems. Your initial focus will be our drone charging systems, which convert AC grid power into multiple low-voltage DC outputs used to charge Zipline aircraft and power our docking station. Depending on your background and evolving program needs, your scope may also include the broader dock electrical system and aircraft power electronics, including power distribution, battery, busbars, and related assemblies. This role requires deep electrical engineering judgment. You will identify the dominant lifetime and failure risks in complex power-conversion hardware, determine how those risks should be evaluated, and influence the architecture and detailed design accordingly. You will apply Physics-of-Failure, Design-for-Reliability, accelerated testing, and hands-on failure analysis to understand degradation mechanisms such as thermomechanical fatigue, dielectric breakdown, insulation aging, capacitor degradation, interconnect fatigue, corrosion, and electrical or thermal overstress. You will work closely with design, test, systems, manufacturing, supplier quality, and operations teams. You will be expected not only to execute reliability activities, but also to provide independent technical leadership, challenge assumptions, and define what good power-electronics reliability engineering looks like at Zipline.

Requirements

B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering or a related technical discipline.
At least 5 years of relevant engineering experience, with 8–10+ years strongly preferred for Staff-level scope.
A strong electrical engineering foundation and the ability to reason from first principles about hardware behavior and failure.
Deep experience developing and validating safety-critical high-voltage and high-power electrical systems such as grid-connected converters, industrial power supplies, EV charging systems, inverters, high band gap semiconductors, renewable-energy systems, aerospace power systems, or similar equipment.
Solid understanding of schematic design and PCB layout for power circuits.
Strong technical communication skills, including the ability to: explain complex technical issues clearly; synthesize ambiguous information into a coherent problem statement; write concise, decision-oriented technical documentation; and drive cross-functional alignment on reliability trade-offs and technical decisions around design, supply-chain, quality, manufacturing, finance, and operations.
Demonstrated ownership and practical problem-solving ability, including driving technically complex issues through resolution.
Ability to learn quickly, independently develop new technical depth, and adapt as program needs evolve.

Responsibilities

Own the reliability strategy for high-voltage power electronics and power-conversion systems, beginning with Zipline’s grid-connected power converters.
Identify and prioritize the dominant reliability risks for high voltage power electronics, considering electrical, thermal, mechanical, environmental, and operational stresses.
Lead DFMEA efforts with cross-functional teams to identify early risks and drive mitigation.
Evaluate power-electronics architectures, schematics, PCB layouts, component selections, packaging concepts, thermal-management approaches, insulation systems, connectors, and high-current interconnects from a reliability perspective.
Develop physics-based Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) and environmental test campaigns to validate long-term hardware performance.
Author clear, technically rigorous test plans and specifications, and provide reliability sign-off on test results and hardware readiness.
Lead failure analysis and structured root cause investigations, from component to system-level.
Define operational life limits and service intervals using a combination of test data, field returns, and statistical models.
Advocate cross-functionally for reliability: maintain an appropriately high reliability bar based on risk assessment and stage of program
Improve Zipline’s reliability methods, tools, standards, and decision-making processes as the company scales.