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South San Francisco, California, United States
Onsite
Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products.
Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations.
Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe.
We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds.
The droid is the delivery container at the heart of our delivery system. It's what detaches from the aircraft on a tether, descends 300 feet, and places your order on a driveway. It is also the part of Zipline that our customers actually see, hold, and interact with, which makes it one of the most demanding products we build. Every droid has to be beautiful, cheap, quiet, weatherproof, thermally stable, and reliable for tens of thousands of flight cycles - all at once.
We're designing EV3, the next generation of the droid. Between now and the day it enters full-rate production, the droid team will define an architecture, design and prototype dozens of subsystems, qualify a supply chain across three continents, build life-test and ground-test infrastructure, and ramp production from prototypes to thousands of units per week. As the Technical Program Manager for the droid, you will own the schedule, the coordination, and the execution rigor that makes all of that happen on time.
This role sits at the intersection of product definition, systems engineering, and execution. You will work across mechanical, electrical, firmware, thermal, industrial design, test, and manufacturing engineering to guide system-level decisions, resolve technical risks, and ensure that designs translate successfully into real hardware - first in prototypes, then in production, then in the field.
If you enjoy being close to the hardware and on the front lines of execution, working alongside engineers, technicians, and operations teams to bring complex electromechanical systems to life, this role will be a great fit.
We value people who take ownership of outcomes, not just responsibilities; you'll be identifying problems early, driving decisions, and ensuring work gets completed even when challenges fall outside traditional role boundaries.
On any given week, you might facilitate a cross-team architecture review, coordinate a prototype build, unblock a mold tool release with a supplier, or work with test and manufacturing engineers to ensure a new subsystem installs and validates cleanly on the line.
Bonus points for any of the following:
The starting cash range for this role is $140,000 – $180,000 depending on experience. This is a target starting range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications; the final cash offer will depend on experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role also includes equity compensation and benefits (medical, dental, vision, PTO, and more).
Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal, or local law.
We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but aren't sure you're the perfect fit - please apply anyway.
For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.
As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.