Test Engineering Manager - Powertrain (Multiple Roles)

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

12h•Onsite

About The Position

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service, dedicated to ensuring access to food, medicine, and essential goods globally. The company designs, builds, and operates an autonomous logistics system, having completed millions of deliveries across four continents, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Zipline's system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and aims to expand its impact from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions of deliveries per year. They are seeking practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth, motivated by building systems with a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives. The company values individuals who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can achieve the impossible at record-breaking speeds. The current opening is for a Hardware Test Engineering Manager within the Powertrain team, with two specific areas of focus: Energy and Power (covering batteries, cells, charging, power distribution, and energy safety) and Electric Drivetrain (encompassing electric propulsion, motors, propellers, and electromechanical systems). This role involves leading the strategy, development, and execution of hardware validation and test activities throughout the entire product lifecycle. The manager will be responsible for leading a multidisciplinary team of engineers, developing world-class test methods and equipment, and overseeing the execution of hardware testing. This includes performance testing to determine hardware limits, system-level performance tests, durability and environmental survivability assessments, and the development of automated hardware testing for production line applications. The successful candidate will act as a player-coach, possessing deep expertise in either batteries or electric propulsion, and will be comfortable providing strategic vision while also engaging directly with the team's designs, builds, analysis, and reviews. This position is critical for evolving Zipline's hardware testing philosophy and capacity, and for growing the team to support the company's ambitious expansion goals across a wide variety of environmental conditions worldwide.

Requirements

Past success leading engineering teams to rapidly develop first of its kind hardware and deploy into the field with the level of rigor that a high volume or safety critical application requires.
Deep technical depth in test hardware design and interfacing with software and automation, structures, mechanisms, and how to rapidly and effectively test for performance, capability, and reliability.
Enthusiasm for building a team - finding and convincing top talent to join you in your work.
Past success managing and developing an excellent team of engineers.
Past success bringing products through the full product development life cycle.
Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.
10+ years of experience in hardware test, validation, or reliability engineering.
3+ years of people management or technical leadership experience.
Strong understanding of hardware design, electronics, and system-level testing.
Strong understanding of fatigue analysis, damage models, material properties.
Strong understanding of test acceleration methods and principles.
Expertise in either: Battery and cell testing, especially for mass sensitive applications; Motors and Electro-magnetics; or Propeller and Aerodynamics.
Familiarity with scripting, automation tools, and the automation of data analysis (Python preferred).

Responsibilities

Lead a team of test engineers and specialists responsible for powertrain testing.
Demonstrate the ultimate capability of powertrain hardware, including batteries, cells, power distribution units, electric propulsion units, and electromechanical actuators.
Contribute to the overall intuition of the engineering team through close involvement in design reviews, prototyping, and testing of components and assemblies.
Design, build, operate, purchase and maintain test equipment.
Develop strategies and test campaigns to efficiently evaluate function, reliability and safety of critical components and assemblies.
Develop calculations for damage and fatigue to replicate flight conditions in ground-based test methods.
Root cause failures alongside design engineers and work to create elegant solutions.
Recreate system-level effects including off-nominal scenarios and safety tests.
Raise the bar for the existing team by creating a vision for the future of the team based on company goals, and implementing strategies to achieve outcomes.
Develop laboratory grade test setups for either Battery Testing including safety testing and thermal runaway testing, Cell Testing for cell cycle life and performance optimization, Motor Testing including dynamometer development and motor characterization, or Propeller Testing including aerodynamic characterization.
Scope out areas where growth is needed and make key hires that revolutionize the quality and pace of work.
Leverage your technical leadership experience in relevant fields to establish a team culture that biases towards action and tests ideas to achieve radically simple and reliable designs.
Motivate your team with a clear vision and create ambitious plans for your team’s work while holding a high bar for technical quality.
Build your team by hiring world class engineers.