Environmental Test Technician

Telemetry Today LLC; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Structural Testing technician to join our R&D labs in South San Francisco. You will manage and support 30+ environmental test chambers and perform vibration tests to validate high‑quality designs for our autonomous logistics systems.

You will collaborate with design and reliability teams, interpret PLC ladder logic, and oversee test fixtures and data analysis to drive root-cause investigations. A hands-on background in mechanical/electrical lab environments is essential.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience operating, maintaining, or troubleshooting mechanical, electrical, or lab test equipment.
• Ability to interpret PLC ladder logic, electrical specifications, schematics, blueprints, and mechanical drawings.
• Experience working on hardware/software projects and collaborating with hardware engineers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to organize data in a way that is easy to understand and present facts clearly.
• Hands-on experience in a machine shop, with proficiency in operating common mechanical equipment.
• Preferred: HVAC/refrigeration systems, DAQs, sensors, instrumentation, or vibration controllers.

Responsibilities

• Maintain 30+ environmental test chambers used in R&D testing.
• Perform installation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and repairs for Espec, Test Equity, and Q-Lab chamber systems.
• Schedule and conduct preventative maintenance to maximize equipment uptime.
• Assist with delivery drone R&D test setups and train users on equipment programming.
• Diagnose and repair mechanical, electrical, and water systems.
• Interpret PLC ladder logic and schematics to support tests.
• Order, inventory, and manage spare parts and coordinate with contractors.
• Provide on-call response on a rotating basis.
• Support the vibration lab and test campaigns including on-site support at flight test locations.

Skills

Industrial equipment operation

PLC ladder logic

Hardware integration

Communication skills

Data organization

Machining

HVAC/refrigeration (pref)

Tools

Espec environmental chambers

Test Equity equipment

Q-Lab equipment

Job description

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 and The Role

Have you ever had the experience of buying a product and having it break or become defectiveout of the box quickly and vow you never want to experience that again? If yes, this could be theposition for you! As a critical member of the Structural Testing team, you will be part of ourmission to make sure that experience is never had by the doctors who rely on us every day.In this role, you will split your time across two essential functions within our R&D test facilities:maintaining and supporting 30+ environmental test chambers used in engineering validation,and executing dynamic and vibration tests across our test assets. You will partner closely withdesign and reliability teams, providing testing support to increase the speed at which they canproduce high-quality designs.

What You'll Do

• Maintain 30+ environmental test chambers used in R&D testing.
• Perform installation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and repairs for a mix of R&Denvironmental test chamber systems (Espec, Test Equity, Q-Lab).
• Schedule and conduct preventative maintenance including cleaning, consumables,inspections, and performance testing toward maximizing equipment uptime.
• Assist staff with delivery drone R&D environmental test setups, train users on equipmentprogramming, and uphold continuous operation of the equipment.
• Diagnose and repair mechanical, electrical, and water supply systems.
• Interpret PLC ladder logic, schematics, blueprints, and mechanical diagrams.
• Order, inventory, and manage spare parts, materials, and equipment.
• Coordinate and oversee 3rd-party contractors performing maintenance or repairs.
• Provide on-call response to emergencies according to criticality on a rotating basis withother technicians on the team.

Structural & Vibration Testing:

• Support the vibration lab, including electrodynamic shakers, HALT chambers, and othertest systems.
• Execute test plans and develop fixtures for dynamic testing.
• Create test setups to match engineering specifications, which includes interpretation oftest procedures and diagrams, instrumentation, data acquisition, test article diagnostics,and front-line root causing.
• Instrument test assets, collect periodic data, and validate lab tests by comparing results
  with real flight data.
• Perform first-pass data analysis, lead root-causing efforts, and write detailed reportsdriving to root cause using data and first-order analysis to inform designrecommendations.
• Partner with Test Technicians and Engineers across diverse test campaigns, includingon-site support at flight test locations.

What You'll Bring

• Hands-on experience operating, maintaining, or troubleshooting mechanical, electrical, or lab test equipment.
• Ability to interpret PLC ladder logic, electrical specifications, schematics, blueprints, and mechanical drawings.
• Experience working on hardware/software projects and collaborating with hardware engineers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to organize data in a way that is easy to understand and present facts clearly.
• Hands-on experience in a machine shop, with proficiency in operating common mechanical equipment.
• Preferred (but not required): Prior experience with HVAC/refrigeration systems, data acquisition systems (DAQs), sensors, instrumentation, or vibration controllers.
• Physical ability to climb ladders, lift equipment, and work in confined spaces.
• Flexibility to participate in a rotating on-call schedule and support shifting lab test priorities.

What Else You Need To Know

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.

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.