Lead Manufacturing Engineer

About Zipline

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.

About You & the Role

As a Lead Manufacturing Engineer, you will turn complex electro-mechanical products into safe, reliable, repeatable production lines for Zipline’s aircraft, docks, and logistics hardware. You will own assigned final assembly and feeder sub-assembly lines from process definition and tooling through validation, production release, and sustainment.

This work connects aerospace-quality manufacturing with reliable field operations and rapid production growth. You will help scale output from tens to thousands of units per week over the next 1–3 years while meeting safety and reliability expectations. Your initial priority is to bring a complex electro-mechanical sub-assembly in-house and validate its production line within months.

This opening sits within our manufacturing engineering team; the exact focus will reflect your strengths and the team’s needs. This role is based out of Zipline’s South San Francisco manufacturing facility, and requires regular on-site presence. Rare travel between sites may be required during ramp and sustainment. Nights or weekends may be needed to support critical production ramps or outages.

What You’ll Do

Coordinate capacity, layouts, equipment, and readiness with Design Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Maintenance, and Operations; deliver a validated pilot line and stabilize production.

Own assigned assembly lines and feeder subassemblies from process definition, tooling, and pilot builds through validation, release, and sustainment.

Define and validate assembly sequences, PFMEAs, control plans, SPC, capability studies, first-article processes, and release criteria.

Design, procure, install, and commission fixtures, gauges, tooling, workstations, and ergonomic operator flows.

Improve first-pass yield, throughput, takt time, equipment reliability, downtime, and cost of poor quality against agreed targets.

Lead design-for-manufacturing decisions that balance assembly time, inspection, cost, safety, and field reliability.

Investigate production issues and escapes, validate root causes, and implement corrective and preventive actions.

Create SOPs, work instructions, and training materials; train and qualify technicians and line leads

What You’ll Bring

7+ years of hands-on manufacturing engineering experience with complex electromechanical assembly lines, including experience scaling volume by an order of magnitude.

A BS in Mechanical Engineering or a related field.

Practical mastery of PFMEA, control plans, SPC, Cp/Cpk, first-article processes, and production validation.

Experience designing and validating fixtures, jigs, and tooling using 3D CAD; Siemens NX is preferred.

Experience using MES/ERP and tools such as Minitab, JMP, or Excel to improve yield and process capability.

End-to-end project ownership, including planning, budgeting, procurement, commissioning, and sustainment with minimal oversight.

Sound DFM judgment, clear communication, attention to detail, and accountability for safe production and measurable results.

What Else You Need to Know

The starting cash range for this role is $160,000 - $180,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. We are always open to negotiation. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

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 are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

Voluntary Self-Identification

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.