Staff Controls Engineer

Zipline • South San Francisco, CA

1d

About The Position

Zipline builds, manufactures, and operates autonomous delivery systems that move critical goods where they are needed. The Controls team develops the models, tools, and flight software foundations that allow aircraft to complete missions autonomously across changing conditions. As a Staff Controls Engineer, you will own system-performance analysis for vehicle designs and help turn flight and fleet data into better models, design decisions, and operational capability. You will work closely with controls, flight test, hardware, manufacturing, and customer-facing teams to identify where performance limits matter most and drive technical improvements.

Requirements

• Demonstrated expertise in controls, flight dynamics, system identification, or modeling of complex physical systems.
• Experience developing and using high-fidelity simulations to evaluate system performance and guide engineering decisions.
• Experience analyzing experimental or flight-test data and using evidence to validate models or improve designs.
• Ability to lead ambiguous technical problems from framing through analysis, recommendation, and cross-functional execution.
• Strong engineering judgment about model assumptions, uncertainty, validation limits, and design tradeoffs.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills for explaining technical findings to engineering and operational partners.
• Comfort working closely with flight-test teams, global fleet data, and customer context to understand real-world system behavior.

Responsibilities

• Own dynamic models of complex vehicle systems and components within Zipline’s high-fidelity six-degree-of-freedom simulation.
• Build controls algorithms that are robust, performant, fault tolerant and own the development, testing, analysis and deployment of the same.
• Define analysis approaches that connect design choices, requirements, limitations, and environmental conditions to vehicle performance.
• Evaluate existing and future vehicle designs through simulation, flight-test data, and data from customer aircraft in the global fleet.
• Improve simulation fidelity by reconciling model predictions with observed flight behavior and identifying the highest-value gaps.
• Lead technical recommendations for controls, vehicle, and system design improvements with software, hardware, flight test, and manufacturing partners.
• Build reusable analysis tools that enable teams to investigate performance questions, compare design options, and make informed tradeoffs.
• Translate operational and customer insights into engineering priorities that improve the reliability and capability of the logistics network.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed