Manufacturing Operations Engineer: Scale & Optimize

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 104,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking an Operations Engineer within Manufacturing Engineering to connect demand, output, staffing, shifts, equipment, space, material flow, process capability, and capital investment on the factory floor. You will turn production goals into practical plans, remove bottlenecks, and implement improvements to sustain throughput and cost efficiency.

You will lead capacity analyses, balance workloads, and collaborate across Manufacturing, Production, and Supply Chain to optimize lines,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 3+ years in industrial, manufacturing, operations engineering, or production systems.
• Experience with time studies, labor and capacity models, line balancing, takt time, standard work, factory layouts, and material flow.
• Track record of identifying manufacturing constraints and improving throughput, productivity, utilization, lead time, or cost.
• Strong spreadsheet and analytical skills, including work with ERP, MES, labor-tracking, and production data.

Responsibilities

• Build capacity and capital-investment scenarios for labor, equipment, tooling, shifts, floor space, and future demand.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement improvements in throughput, utilization, cycle time, labor efficiency, and cost.
• Lead time studies and define standard work and labor models; balance station loading against takt time.
• Own factory performance and production-system design, connecting processes into an efficient end-to-end system.
• Improve factory layouts, workstations, operator movement, and material presentation.
• Define WIP, buffer, queue, and rework strategies to protect output while reducing inventory and lead time.
• Partner with Manufacturing, Production, Supply Chain, and Material Planning on line architecture, lineside availability, and replenishment.
• Develop factory KPIs, decision tools, make-versus-buy analyses, and investment cases; drive improvements through implementation.

Skills

Time studies

Line balancing

Takt time

Factory layouts

Analytical skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering or related field

Tools

ERP/MES platforms

SQL

Python

BI tools

Labor-tracking systems

Job description

Zipline is seeking an Operations Engineer within Manufacturing Engineering to connect demand, output, staffing, shifts, equipment, space, material flow, process capability, and capital investment on the factory floor. You will turn production goals into practical plans, remove bottlenecks, and implement improvements to sustain throughput and cost efficiency.

You will lead capacity analyses, balance workloads, and collaborate across Manufacturing, Production, and Supply Chain to optimize lines,