Mechanical Engineer, RF Systems

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Mechanical Design Engineer for RF systems in South San Francisco. You will own the physical architecture and mechanical design of antenna and RF assemblies used across Zipline’s avionics systems, ensuring RF performance through prototype to high‑volume production.

You will collaborate with RF, Electrical, EMC, Systems, Navigation, Flight Test, Manufacturing, and vehicle‑structure teams, applying robust design, testing, and manufacturing controls in a fast‑paced environment.

Qualifications

• What You'll Bring: strong mechanical engineering fundamentals, structures, vibration, thermal design, sealing, tolerance analysis, environmental protection.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end mechanical design for antenna and RF assemblies, including architecture, packaging, CAD, drawings, specifications, tolerance analysis, BOMs, and production release.

Skills

Mechanical design

RF fundamentals

Antenna design

Thermal & vibration analysis

Coaxial cables & connectors

Radome & shielding design

Vendor collaboration

Prototype testing

EMC considerations

Tools

CAD

GD&T

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.

About Zipline

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 depend on reliable communication, navigation, and surveillance links. The performance of an RF system is inseparable from its mechanical implementation: antenna position, orientation, ground plane, surrounding structures, radome materials, feed routing, connector interfaces, shielding, tolerances, water exposure, and structural deformation can determine whether a link works reliably in the field.

Your scope may include GNSS, cellular, Wi‑Fi, command‑and‑control, ADS‑B, and other current or future wireless systems.

As a Mechanical Design Engineer for RF Systems, you will own the physical architecture and mechanical design of antenna and RF assemblies used across Zipline’s avionics systems. You are not expected to replace the RF electrical engineer; you are expected to understand RF behavior deeply enough to make mechanical decisions that preserve antenna and link performance from prototype through high‑volume production and fleet deployment.

You will work closely with RF, Electrical, EMC, Systems, Navigation, Flight Test, Manufacturing, and vehicle‑structure teams. You are not expected to replace the RF electrical engineer; you are expected to understand RF behavior deeply enough to make mechanical decisions that preserve antenna and link performance from prototype through high‑volume production and fleet deployment.

What You'll Do

• Own end‑to‑end mechanical design for antenna and RF assemblies, including architecture, packaging, CAD, drawings, specifications, tolerance analysis, BOMs, and production release.


• Translate link‑budget, antenna‑pattern, polarization, isolation, desense, environmental, structural, and vehicle‑level requirements into measurable mechanical constraints.


• Establish antenna placement, orientation, keep‑out, ground‑plane, separation, and installation requirements across vehicle structures and avionics assemblies.


• Design antenna mounts, radomes, housings, RF shields, feedline routing, connector interfaces, strain relief, grounding features, and serviceable module assemblies.


• Define mechanical shielding, seam, gasket, grounding, and bonding strategies that contain digital and power‑system emissions while avoiding unintended antenna effects.


• Partner with RF and Test engineers on measurements including S‑parameters, VSWR, insertion loss, antenna efficiency, gain, radiation pattern, polarization, isolation, desense, and environmental performance.


• Create fixtures and representative structures that allow chamber and bench measurements to reproduce the installed mechanical configuration.


• Perform structural, thermal, vibration, fatigue, and tolerance analyses to ensure RF assemblies remain physically stable and electrically repeatable throughout operating life.


• Define critical‑to‑quality dimensions and manufacturing controls for antenna position, orientation, ground contact, cable routing, connector engagement, radome geometry, and adhesive application.


• Work directly with antenna vendors, material suppliers, connector manufacturers, composite suppliers, and contract manufacturers to qualify parts and production processes.


• Lead investigations of RF field failures where mechanical configuration may be a contributing factor. Use telemetry, RF logs, inspection data, environmental history, and physical measurements to establish root cause.


• Maintain mechanical interface‑control documents and installation requirements so antenna performance is preserved across vehicle configurations and future product generations.

What You'll Bring

• Strong mechanical engineering fundamentals, including structures, vibration, fatigue, thermal design, material selection, sealing, tolerance analysis, and environmental protection.


• Advanced CAD, GD&T, datum‑strategy, drawing‑release, and production‑tolerance skills.


• Working knowledge of RF fundamentals, including antenna gain, radiation pattern, polarization, ground‑plane effects, impedance, insertion loss, shielding, isolation, and link margin.


• Ability to reason about how antenna placement, radome properties, conductive structures, cable routing, grounding, and assembly variation affect RF performance.


• Experience designing with RF‑transparent plastics, elastomers, adhesives, coatings, metals, composites, and conductive carbon‑fiber structures.


• Experience integrating coaxial cables, RF connectors, controlled‑impedance flexes, shielding, grounding, and strain relief into compact mechanical assemblies.


• Experience designing environmentally sealed hardware for vibration, shock, temperature cycling, moisture, contamination, and outdoor exposure.


• Experience building prototypes, test coupons, fixtures, and representative structures for mechanical and RF characterization.


• Track record of resolving difficult cross‑disciplinary failures involving mechanical hardware, RF performance, electronics, manufacturing variation, or installation conditions.


• Experience working directly with suppliers and manufacturing teams to establish capable processes and improve yield, cost, and repeatability.


• This role is based in South San Francisco and requires regular hands‑on work in the lab. Travel to suppliers, manufacturers, antenna ranges, chamber facilities, and flight‑test locations will be required.


• Periodic off‑hours support may be required during flight tests, certification campaigns, production ramps, or urgent field investigations.

Nice to Have

• Experience with GNSS, cellular, Wi‑Fi, command‑and‑control, ADS‑B, UWB, or multi‑radio platforms.


• Experience with aircraft, drones, robotics, automotive systems, or other mass‑ and volume‑constrained wireless products.


• Experience with anechoic chambers, over‑the‑air testing, antenna ranges, vector network analyzers, or RF survey testing.


• Experience investigating GNSS desense or coexistence problems involving high‑speed compute, cameras, motors, or switching power electronics.


• Experience developing radomes, conformal antennas, composite‑integrated antennas, ceramic patches, FPC antennas, or directional antenna modules.


• Familiarity with EMC design, regulatory certification, EIRP constraints, or international radio configurations.


• Experience developing high‑volume, connectorized antenna architectures that can be assembled and verified at end of line.

What Success Looks Like

• Antenna and RF assemblies meet link‑margin, gain, pattern, polarization, isolation, and navigation‑availability requirements in their installed configurations.


• RF performance remains repeatable across production variation, vehicle configurations, environmental exposure, and operating life.


• Mechanical design decisions measurably reduce GNSS desense, intermittent‑link, connector, cable, radome, and installation‑related failures.


• RF assemblies ramp to production while meeting agreed mass, cost, yield, assembly‑time, and supplier‑capability targets.


• Field and chamber data correlate well enough that