Chief Flight Test Engineer, Autonomous Systems

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Head of Autonomous Flight Test Engineering to lead the team that converts complex engineering questions into safe, evidence-based release decisions. You will own flight test strategy and campaigns, strengthening automation, data, and operating practices across Zipline.

You are a strong technical leader who can balance rigor with pace, grow a team, and oversee test architecture, risk assessment, and execution details for a rapidly evolving autonomous delivery system.

Qualifications

• 5+ years designing, developing, validating, or testing complex autonomous systems or safety-critical systems.
• Experience leading flight test, system test, validation, or field test engineering teams.
• Experience taking complex test campaigns from objective definition through planning, execution, analysis, and release recommendation.

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow, and develop the Flight Test Engineering team.
• Own the validation strategy for new aircraft capabilities, software releases, hardware changes, delivery operations, docking and charging systems, fleet behavior, and operational concepts.
• Define campaign objectives, success criteria, risk posture, and go/no-go frameworks with cross-functional teams.
• Build and oversee flight test campaigns that produce release-readiness evidence and expand regression coverage.
• Improve automated test infrastructure, data pipelines, anomaly detection, reporting, and metrics.
• Choose the appropriate validation modality—flight, simulation, or hardware/software-in-the-loop testing.
• Partner with Flight Test Operations on site readiness and testing in new geographies.
• Foster a strong safety culture and ensure compliance with regulations and internal standards.

Skills

Flight Test Leadership

Cross-functional Leadership

Test Automation

Systems Thinking

Data Analytics

Executive/Regulatory Communication

Willingness to Travel

Tools

Test Automation Tools

Data Pipelines

Job description

Zipline is seeking a Head of Autonomous Flight Test Engineering to lead the team that converts complex engineering questions into safe, evidence-based release decisions. You will own flight test strategy and campaigns, strengthening automation, data, and operating practices across Zipline.

You are a strong technical leader who can balance rigor with pace, grow a team, and oversee test architecture, risk assessment, and execution details for a rapidly evolving autonomous delivery system.