Hardware Test Engineer (Droid)

Zipline; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a hands-on Ground Test Engineer to own the testing framework for droid hardware and zipping point interfaces. You will design fixtures, run life tests, and drive reliability commitments across mechanics, electronics, and firmware.

You will also develop test automation scripts in Python, perform data logging, and contribute to qualification campaigns for production ramps in a cross-disciplinary hardware team.

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering with 3+ years delivering electromechanical hardware or test software.
• Systems thinking to isolate failures across mechanics, electronics, and firmware.
• Comfort reading schematics and interfacing with test equipment.

Responsibilities

• Own ground test strategy for the droid and its interface with zipping point infrastructure.
• Design, build, and deploy mechanical test fixtures and life-test rigs from concept to production readiness.
• Write Python scripts for automation, data logging, and pass/fail evaluation.

Skills

Python

Test automation

Data analysis

Firmware experience

C/C++/Rust

Drone/Robot domain

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Siemens NX

Altium

KiCad

Job description

• The droid is the delivery container at the heart of our delivery system. It’s what detaches from the aircraft on a tether, descends 300 feet, and places your order on a driveway, or picks up an order at a merchant’s zipping point and returns to the aircraft
• The interaction between the droid and the zipping point infrastructure is the most cycled, most reliability‑critical mechanical interface in our system
• We’re designing EV3, the next generation of the droid and the next versions of our ground pickup stations
• As we scale toward thousands of units in production and tens of thousands of flight cycles per unit, we need someone to own the ground testing that makes that scale credible - every fixture, life-test rig, environmental chamber, and automated bring‑up station that proves the droid and zipping point work reliably together while exceeding our reliability targets
• You’ll join a small, deeply cross‑disciplinary hardware team building and testing our future systems end‑to‑end
• Own the ground test strategy for the droid and its interaction with zipping point infrastructure - from pickup and drop‑off mechanics, to tether engagement, to environmental exposure of the mated system
• Design, build, and deploy custom mechanical test fixtures and life‑test rigs, from concept through fabrication, bring‑up, and long‑duration operation
• Develop the electrical and instrumentation side of these test systems. Load cells, thermocouples, encoders, current sensing, motor drivers, pneumatic actuators, DAQ, safety interlocks, etc
• Write the automation software that runs them - Python scripting, data logging, live health monitoring, automated pass/fail evaluation, integration into our broader hardware test framework
• Drive test campaigns from early prototype validation through qualification, life testing, and production end‑of‑line testing
• Triage and root‑cause failures across mechanical, electrical, and firmware domains, using data, test heritage, and one‑off targeted campaigns
• Partner directly with the mechanical, electrical, firmware, and manufacturing engineers designing EV3 - pushing back on requirements when the physics doesn’t support them, and proposing changes when testing reveals opportunities to improve reliability
• Travel occasionally to suppliers and manufacturing partners (China, Malaysia, Japan, Italy, Germany, Vietnam) to deploy test equipment, qualify processes, and support production ramps

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, or a related field, with 3+ years of hands‑on experience delivering electromechanical hardware or test software
• A systems approach to problem solving: a knack for identifying whether a failure lives in mechanics, electronics, firmware, or their interaction, and diving deep into whichever domain the problem lives in
• The judgment to know when a test is telling you something real vs. when the fixture itself is the problem
• Comfort with the electrical side of test equipment - reading schematics, wiring up a fixture, debugging with a scope, selecting the right sensor for the job
• Real Python experience. You’ve written test automation, data processing scripts, or bench‑top control software that other people relied on
• Demonstrated ability to design mechanical hardware in a CAD environment (we use Siemens NX)
• Strong fabrication and prototyping instincts - you’re comfortable in a machine shop, with hand tools, and at a soldering station
• Experience with high‑cycle mechanical life testing, environmental chambers, or accelerated life test design
• Firmware experience (C, C++, Rust) on microcontrollers driving test equipment
• Experience deploying test equipment to contract manufacturers and supporting production ramps
• PCB design experience for custom fixtures or breakout boards (Altium, KiCad)
• Prior work in drone, robotics, automotive, medical device, or consumer electronics NPI