Flight-Test Maintenance Program Lead

Namely; Esparto (CA); On-site; USD 95,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Test Maintenance Program Manager to own end-to-end delivery ensuring test aircraft and sites stay mission-ready across NestZ, Nest0, Truckzilla, Cascades, and future locations. You will coordinate maintenance, tooling, documentation, and training, enabling faster flight-test cycles and safer operations.

You will lead cross-functional decisions, align stakeholders, and maintain change-control for active test fleets while building dashboards and workflows to streamline

Qualifications

• 5+ years in program management, maintenance operations, test operations, or related technical operations.

Responsibilities

• Own program-level delivery for test maintenance across multiple sites and new sites with milestones and owners.
• Translate floor-level maintenance needs into program plans including tooling, parts, documentation, and training.
• Act as the primary link between Maintenance Ops, Flight Test, Engineering, Product, and site operations to drive decisions.
• Maintain configuration and modification tracking for active test aircraft and ensure change-control compliance.
• Track and report readiness metrics and SLAs tied to campaign schedules.
• Run Test Maintenance Program Updates for leadership and site teams highlighting blockers and gaps.
• Design dashboards, checklists, and workflows to reduce technician administrative burden.
• Convert site lessons into standard work and documentation updates.
• Lead or coordinate maintenance validation campaigns and decide scale vs. rework.

Skills

Program management

Maintenance operations

Aviation operations

Engineering operations

Dashboarding

Jira

Confluence

Cross-functional communication

Travel readiness

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Spreadsheets

Dashboarding tools

Job description

Zipline is seeking a Test Maintenance Program Manager to own end-to-end delivery ensuring test aircraft and sites stay mission-ready across NestZ, Nest0, Truckzilla, Cascades, and future locations. You will coordinate maintenance, tooling, documentation, and training, enabling faster flight-test cycles and safer operations.

You will lead cross-functional decisions, align stakeholders, and maintain change-control for active test fleets while building dashboards and workflows to streamline