Lead, Avionics Technician

Namely; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 117,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline in South San Francisco is seeking a Lead of Avionics Technicians to guide a team responsible for prototype assembly, rework, integration, testing, and troubleshooting of critical avionics hardware. You will hire and develop technicians, plan capacity, set technical standards, and ensure high-quality hardware on schedule.

This hands-on leadership role requires strong technical skills and the ability to balance schedule urgency with safety and quality.

Qualifications

• Proven success managing and developing technicians who build and test complex electronics, avionics, robotics, or other high-reliability hardware.
• Experience hiring, onboarding, setting performance expectations, providing feedback, and developing technical career paths.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of electronics assembly, soldering, crimping, harnessing, rework, inspection, integration, and test.

Responsibilities

• Build, manage, and develop a high-performing team of avionics technicians.
• Hire technicians with the right mix of electronics assembly, rework, integration, test, and troubleshooting skills.
• Establish standards for soldering, crimping, harness assembly, inspection, ESD controls, test execution, documentation, and configuration control.
• Own daily execution and ensure work is completed safely, correctly, and on schedule.
• Develop training and certification programs that expand technician capability and create consistent workmanship across the team.

Skills

Electronics assembly

Soldering

Crimping

Harnessing

Troubleshooting hardware

Read schematics & BOMs

Team leadership

Capacity planning

Cross-functional communication

On-site collaboration

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Digital multimeters

Power supplies

Logic analyzers

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 builds and operates autonomous delivery systems that move critical goods reliably and safely. The Avionics team develops and supports the electronics, sensors, communications hardware, wiring, and electromechanical assemblies used across our aircraft, droids, and ground systems.

As Lead of Avionics Technicians, you will build and lead the technician team responsible for prototype assembly, rework, integration, testing, and troubleshooting. You will hire and develop technicians, plan team capacity, establish technical standards, and ensure engineering programs receive high-quality hardware on schedule.

This is a hands-on people-management role. You will be accountable for the team’s performance while remaining close enough to the work to resolve difficult technical problems, improve processes, and set the standard for disciplined execution.

What You'll Do

• Build, manage, and develop a high-performing team of avionics technicians.
• Hire technicians with the right mix of electronics assembly, rework, integration, test, and troubleshooting skills.
• Set clear responsibilities, priorities, performance expectations, and development plans for each team member.
• Plan technician staffing and capacity across prototype builds, engineering tests, qualification campaigns, failure investigations, and production support.
• Own daily execution and ensure work is completed safely, correctly, and on schedule.
• Establish standards for soldering, crimping, harness assembly, inspection, ESD controls, test execution, documentation, and configuration control.
• Develop training and certification programs that expand technician capability and create consistent workmanship across the team.
• Partner with Electrical, Mechanical, RF, Test, Reliability, Manufacturing, and program leads to anticipate demand and resolve execution constraints.
• Ensure drawings, work instructions, test procedures, and material kits are ready before work begins; drive improvements when documentation is incomplete.
• Lead escalations involving difficult builds, intermittent failures, test-equipment problems, or recurring workmanship issues.
• Develop metrics for build quality, throughput, rework, schedule adherence, equipment utilization, and technician capacity.
• Own lab readiness, including tools, test equipment, calibration, consumables, material flow, safety, and workspace organization.
• Support work at suppliers, manufacturing facilities, test sites, and deployment locations when needed.

What You'll Bring

• Proven success managing and developing technicians who build and test complex electronics, avionics, robotics, or other high-reliability hardware.
• Experience hiring, onboarding, setting performance expectations, providing feedback, and developing technical career paths.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of electronics assembly, soldering, crimping, harnessing, rework, inspection, integration, and test.
• Ability to read electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, mechanical drawings, BOMs, and work instructions.
• Experience troubleshooting hardware using oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, power supplies, electronic loads, logic analyzers, and related equipment.
• Demonstrated ability to plan team capacity, manage competing priorities, and deliver reliable execution across multiple programs.
• Experience establishing workmanship, safety, ESD, documentation, and configuration-control standards.
• Strong cross-functional communication and the judgment to balance schedule urgency with hardware quality and safety.
• Willingness to remain technically engaged and work alongside the team when complex or urgent problems arise.
• Ability to work in person in South San Francisco and travel occasionally to suppliers, manufacturing facilities, and test or deployment sites.

Nice to Have

• IPC J-STD-001, IPC-A-610, IPC/WHMA-A-620, or equivalent certification or training experience.
• Experience supporting aerospace, robotics, automotive, medical-device, or other safety-critical products.
• Experience with RF hardware, antennas, flex circuits, environmental testing, or electronics failure analysis.
• Familiarity with PLM, MES, inventory, issue-tracking, and test-data systems.

What Success Looks Like

• A capable technician team is hired, trained, retained, and able to support growing avionics demand.
• Engineering programs receive consistently high-quality builds and test support on schedule.
• Technician capacity and priorities are visible, enabling resources to be assigned before they become program constraints.
• Build defects, rework, documentation gaps, and repeated workmanship issues decline over time.
• Technicians receive effective coaching, clear career development, and increasing technical responsibility.
• The avionics lab operates safely and predictably with appropriate tools, materials, processes, and controls.

What Else You Need To Know

The starting salary for this role is $117,000 - $175,000. 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.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.