Technical Program Manager, Manufacturing Engineering

Zipline • South San Francisco, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Zipline designs and operates autonomous aircraft, delivery systems, docks, and supporting infrastructure. Manufacturing Engineering builds the processes, equipment, facilities, and production systems that allow these products to be built safely, reliably, and efficiently at scale. As a Technical Program Manager, you will lead the cross-functional programs behind factory growth: facility construction, equipment installation, capacity planning, and production scaling. You will connect factory-floor execution with long-range manufacturing strategy, helping teams make informed tradeoffs and move programs through commissioning into stable production.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in technical program management, manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, operations, facilities, equipment engineering, or a related field.
• A bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, business, or a related discipline.
• Experience leading complex cross-functional manufacturing, facilities, construction, or equipment-installation programs through commissioning or production launch.
• Experience developing production capacity models, labor plans, scaling plans, or long-range operational strategies.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing metrics, including takt time, throughput, labor utilization, yield, cycle time, downtime, and capacity constraints.
• Strong program-management skills across planning, budgeting, risk and dependency management, and executive communication; able to turn detailed analysis into clear recommendations.
• A hands-on approach and willingness to work in manufacturing and construction environments, using Excel or Google Sheets, project-planning software, and presentation tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead facility construction, equipment installation, and manufacturing infrastructure programs from scope definition through procurement, installation, commissioning, and production readiness.
• Build integrated plans for schedule, budget, resources, dependencies, risks, decisions, and execution milestones across concurrent manufacturing programs.
• Coordinate Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Design Engineering, contractors, vendors, landlords, consultants, and regulatory stakeholders.
• Establish governance, operating rhythms, and stage gates for facility and manufacturing investments, including readiness plans for pilot builds and transitions to stable operations
• Own factory capacity-model aggregation across products, production lines, and facilities; standardize assumptions for demand, takt time, yield, labor, utilization, downtime, and equipment constraints.
• Translate capacity and growth models into recommendations on facility footprint, equipment investment, staffing, and production strategy; surface bottlenecks and drive timely tradeoff decisions.
• Track outcomes including throughput, labor productivity, equipment utilization, first-pass yield, cost of poor quality, schedule adherence, and capital efficiency.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level