Failure Analysis Engineer - Root Cause & Reliability

Socket.dev; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Failure Analysis Engineer to own the triage, investigation, and conclusions of hardware failures. You will determine how and why a failure occurred, preserve evidence, and shape design decisions across engineering and operations.

This role is based at Zipline’s South San Francisco lab. You will work across SEM/EDS, CT, FTIR, metallography, and mechanical testing to build strong, evidence-based conclusions and influence corrective actions.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in Failure Analysis or related hardware engineering.
• Experience investigating hardware failures and developing defensible conclusions from physical evidence.
• Hands-on experience with multiple failure analysis and materials characterization techniques such as optical microscopy, SEM/EDS, metallography and cross-sectioning, CT/X-ray inspection, FTIR, hardness testing, mechanical testing, DSC/TGA, or similar methods.

Responsibilities

• Lead evidence-based investigations of test, manufacturing, supplier, and field failures; determine the physical failure mechanism and establish confidence in the conclusion.
• Own Failure Analysis cases from intake through technical conclusion, including hardware handling, inspection strategy, test sequencing, laboratory execution, external lab coordination as needed, and technical documentation.
• Preserve and develop physical evidence through inspection and analytical workflows, including SEM/EDS, CT, FTIR, cross-sectioning, metallography, and mechanical testing with traceability.
• Identify failure mechanisms such as fatigue, overload, corrosion, wear, embrittlement, contamination, and manufacturing defects.
• Build standardized Failure Analysis workflows, report formats, evidence-handling practices, confidence assessments, and failure-mechanism nomenclature.
• Build and maintain a centralized Failure Analysis knowledge base to track recurring mechanisms across programs.
• Partner with design, manufacturing, reliability, supplier quality, test, systems, and operations teams to influence design standards and qualification testing.
• Review proposed corrective actions and provide technical justification to ensure they address the identified mechanism.
• Drive outcomes in investigation quality, prevention of repeat failures, and cross-program learning.

Skills

Failure Analysis

Materials Science

Hardware Engineering

Data Analysis

Laboratory Methods

Cross-functional Collaboration

Tools

Optical microscopy

SEM/EDS

CT/X-ray inspection

FTIR

Cross-sectioning

Metallography

Mechanical testing

DSC/TGA

Job description

Zipline is seeking a Failure Analysis Engineer to own the triage, investigation, and conclusions of hardware failures. You will determine how and why a failure occurred, preserve evidence, and shape design decisions across engineering and operations.

This role is based at Zipline’s South San Francisco lab. You will work across SEM/EDS, CT, FTIR, metallography, and mechanical testing to build strong, evidence-based conclusions and influence corrective actions.