Mechanical Engineer, Production Equipment – High-Impact

Candidate; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline in South San Francisco is seeking a Mechanical Engineer in Production Equipment to design and deploy fixtures, workstations, and end-of-line test rigs for aircraft assembly and battery integration.

You will shape throughput, first-pass yield, and maintenance uptime across production lines critical to live delivery fleets. The role requires hands-on fabrication, debugging, and close collaboration with Design, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain teams.

Qualifications

• 5+ years designing production equipment, fixtures, or automation.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.
• Strong GD&T, tolerance analysis, mechanisms, and material selection.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD; NX preferred; SolidWorks/Creo acceptable.
• Hands-on fabrication, debugging, testing, and operator training.

Responsibilities

• Own equipment projects from requirements through vendor fabrication, build, commissioning, and production release.
• Design alignment fixtures, tooling, ergonomic stations, and end-of-line test rigs.
• Apply GD&T, tolerance analysis, and material selection for safe, maintainable equipment.
• Lead hands-on debugging and root-cause analysis during launches and ramps.
• Coordinate equipment scope, test requirements, and schedules with cross-functional teams.
• Write technical RFQs, evaluate proposals, verify vendor quality, and perform acceptance testing.
• Target tooling availability above 95% and aim for cycle-time reductions of 20–40% within 6–12 months.

Skills

Production equipment design

Bachelor's degree

GD&T

Siemens NX

SolidWorks

Creo

Hands-on fabrication

Vendor coordination

Safety & reliability

Troubleshooting

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Siemens NX

SolidWorks

Creo

Job description

Zipline in South San Francisco is seeking a Mechanical Engineer in Production Equipment to design and deploy fixtures, workstations, and end-of-line test rigs for aircraft assembly and battery integration.

You will shape throughput, first-pass yield, and maintenance uptime across production lines critical to live delivery fleets. The role requires hands-on fabrication, debugging, and close collaboration with Design, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain teams.