Head of Flight Test Engineering

Namely; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation sponsorship

Comprehensive health benefits

Work-life balance support

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Head of Flight Test Engineering to lead the strategy and execution of flight testing at our South San Francisco HQ. In this vital role, you will be responsible for overseeing flight test campaigns, automating testing processes, and conducting data analyses to ensure the success of our logistics systems.

The ideal candidate will have over five years of experience in complex systems testing, a strong leadership presence, and the ability to balance risk and operational needs. You must be ready to work closely with cross-functional teams to deliver valuable results and foster safety in all testing environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in testing complex autonomous systems.
• Demonstrated leadership in flight test and validation engineering.
• Strong judgment in balancing engineering rigor and operational speed.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team focused on flight testing operations and strategies.
• Own technical strategy for validating new capabilities and systems.
• Design comprehensive flight test campaigns for new features.

Skills

Leadership

Systems-level judgment

Test campaign execution

Data analysis

Risk assessment

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

5+ years in robotics/aerospace

Tools

Automation tooling

Analytics techniques

Job description

Zipline is looking for a Head of Flight Test Engineering to lead the strategy, execution, and evolution of our flight test program. In this role, you will lead the team responsible for flight test campaigns, automated test infrastructure, test data analysis, and ensuring flight testing delivers the highest-value learning before hardware and software are deployed or updated globally.

Flight test is one of Zipline’s final lines of defense before changes reach real-world operations. As Head of Flight Test Engineering, you will ensure our program safely, efficiently, and rigorously validates new aircraft capabilities, delivery operations, docking and charging systems, fleet orchestration, and other end-to-end logistics system improvements.

This is a highly cross‑functional leadership role. You will work closely with Flight Test Operations, Engineering (software, electrical, mechanical, controls, autonomy, cloud and systems), Regulatory, and Product teams to translate complex engineering questions into effective test strategies and execute large‑scale campaigns. You will also contribute directly to technical work, including building campaigns, improving tools, defining processes, advancing analytics, expanding coverage, and closing the gap between flight test and commercial operations.

The ideal candidate is both a strong technical leader and a hands‑on systems thinker. You should be excited to lead and grow a team while diving into test architecture, data, automation, risk assessment, and execution details. You should bring strong judgment about when to move quickly, when to invest in durable infrastructure and process, and how to balance engineering rigor with the pace required to support a rapidly evolving autonomous delivery system.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and develop a high‑performing Flight Test Engineering team responsible for system‑level test strategy, campaign design, automation tooling, data analysis, and risk assessment.
• Own the technical strategy for validating new aircraft capabilities, software releases, hardware changes, delivery operations, docking and charging systems, fleet behavior, and operational concepts.
• Design and oversee comprehensive flight test campaigns for new features, products, metrics, and regression coverage across Zipline’s end‑to‑end logistics system.
• Increase the scope, rigor, and representativeness of flight test coverage while ensuring flight testing is used for the highest‑value learning opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to move appropriate coverage from flight test to other modalities, including system simulation, software‑in‑the‑loop, hardware‑in‑the‑loop, and ground testing.
• Develop and integrate tools, software workflows, and automated infrastructure that improve flight test precision, insight, capacity, repeatability, utilization and velocity.
• Improve test data analytics, including correctness evaluation, metric development, anomaly detection, trend analysis, and automated reporting.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to define system‑level objectives, success criteria, risk posture, and go/no‑go decision frameworks.
• Assess hardware, software, and operational readiness for testing, and ensure sound decisions about safety, risk, and execution.
• Partner with Flight Test Operations to improve planning, execution processes, site readiness, incident response, operational scalability, and overall throughput.
• Act as a key stakeholder in release readiness decisions for live operations, ensuring evidence is clear, complete, and decision‑useful.
• Support certification and regulatory efforts by ensuring campaigns generate the evidence needed for external approvals.
• Foster a strong safety culture across flight test engineering and operations, ensuring compliance with procedures, regulations, and internal standards.
• Help grow flight test capabilities in new geographies, environments, technologies, and test cases while maintaining the reliability of existing programs.

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of experience designing, developing, validating, or testing complex autonomous, robotic, aerospace, aviation, or safety‑critical systems; UAS experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading flight test, system test, validation, or field test engineering teams.
• Strong systems‑level judgment, with the ability to balance risk and priorities across software, embedded systems, electrical systems, mechanical systems, controls, operations, and regulatory constraints.
• Experience designing and executing complex test campaigns from objective definition through planning, execution, analysis, and release recommendation.
• Experience building or integrating test automation, analytics tooling, data pipelines, or other scalable validation systems.
• Proven ability to improve coverage, increase efficiency, and determine the right validation modality for a given engineering question.
• Experience assessing hardware and software readiness and making sound go/no‑go decisions in fast‑paced, ambiguous environments.
• Demonstrated success leading cross‑functional technical programs involving engineering, operations, manufacturing, regulatory, and product stakeholders.
• Experience operating where safety, speed, and engineering rigor must be carefully balanced.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical and operational trade‑offs to engineering teams, executives, operators, and regulatory partners.
• Ability to develop leaders, mentor engineers, set technical direction, and build durable team processes.
• Comfort working in field environments and partnering closely with operational teams conducting real‑world testing.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally for flight testing, team leadership, and test site support.

What Else You Need to Know

This is an onsite role based out of our South San Francisco HQ and testing sites. You must be willing and able to do travel weekly between Northern California test sites and Zipline’s headquarters. Should you need it, we will sponsor relocation to San Francisco, CA.

The starting cash range for this role is $180,000 - $260,000. Please note that this is a target starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash payment for this role will depend on various factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may include equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental, and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!