Launch Manager

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

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Launch Manager to own deployments in assigned markets from approval through first delivery and transition to stable operations. This role requires hands‑on launch ownership, coordinating across teams to ensure readiness, safety, and repeatability.

You will drive readiness gates, escalations, and practical field execution for rapid scaling of charging locations and partner sites. Ideal candidates have 6+ years in operations or deployment, with a track record of leading

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in operations, deployment, or physical-network scaling.
• Proven track record with complex cross-functional launches in real environments.
• Ability to coordinate across multiple teams to meet schedule and readiness goals.

Responsibilities

• Own integrated launch plans and critical paths for charging locations and partner sites.
• Build systems, tools, and dashboards to make launches safe, fast, and scalable.
• Lead site readiness, identify blockers, and drive decisions across teams.
• Coordinate infrastructure, permitting, flight operations, regulatory, and partner workstreams.
• Establish readiness gates, playbooks, and operating rhythms for repeatable deployments.
• Track schedule, regulatory status, partner readiness, blockers, and hand‑off health.
• Lead retrospectives to remove bottlenecks and improve future launches.
• Drive transition to stable operations and scalable field deployment.

Skills

Launch planning

Cross-functional coordination

Field readiness

Stakeholder comms

Executive trade-offs

Ambiguity tolerance

Job description

About Zipline

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

Zipline is building the charging‑point and partner network that brings new delivery capacity online. As a Launch Manager, you will own deployments in assigned markets from approval through first delivery and transition to stable operations. This is hands‑on launch ownership, not coordination. You will run the integrated launch plan, drive readiness decisions and escalations across teams, and work in the field to make launches safe and repeatable. Success means completing readiness gates, enabling first delivery, and handing field teams an operation they can run and scale.

What You’ll Do

• Own integrated launch plans and critical paths for charging locations and partner sites from approval through first delivery.
• Build the systems, tools, operating rhythms, and readiness mechanisms that make launches safe, fast, repeatable, and scalable.
• Lead site‑level readiness; identify blockers, clarify owners, drive decisions, and escalated, schedule, regulatory, or partner trade‑offs that require functional alignment.
• Coordinate infrastructure, permitting, flight operations, maintenance, regulatory, commercial, community engagement, and partner workstreams against launch milestones.
• Establish readiness gates, playbooks, dashboards, and operating rhythms that make deployments repeatable across metros, partners, and future verticals.
• Track schedule, regulatory status, partner readiness, blockers, and operational hand‑off health; provide clear visibility to stakeholders.
• Lead retrospectives using field results and operational data to remove systemic bottlenecks and improve future launches.
• Drive transition to stable operations, ensuring each site is practical for field teams, measurable, and prepared to scale.

What You’ll Bring

• 6+ years of experience in operations, deployment, infrastructure rollout, logistics, marketplace expansion, or physical‑network scaling.
• A record of owning complex, cross‑functional launches or rollouts through go‑live in real operating environments.
• Experience building integrated plans across multiple teams and resolving dependencies affecting schedule, readiness, and execution.
• Sound field judgment to distinguish documented readiness from conditions that support a safe, successful launch.
• Ability to move between executive‑level trade‑offs and site‑level details, readiness checklists, and partner coordination.
• Comfort working through ambiguity, time pressure, and changing field conditions while maintaining structure and follow‑through.
• Frequent travel to cities throughout the U.S. to directly support charging‑location and partner‑site launches; experience with physical infrastructure, logistics networks, aviation, robotics, autonomous systems, permitting, or construction is valued.

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. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!