Mechanical Test Engineer, Avionics

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

Job summary

Zipline is hiring a Mechanical Test Engineer in South San Francisco to design, build, and maintain test systems for cutting-edge drone hardware. You will work with product design, reliability, and embedded teams to ensure robust testing across extreme environments.

The role emphasizes ownership, fast iteration, and collaboration with a small, focused team to WOW our customers while delivering reliable systems for aerospace applications. In-person work is required at the SSF HQ.

Qualifications

• Design for user experience of mechanical test systems.
• Strong mechanical engineering fundamentals.
• Cross functional team management experience balancing structures, aero, embedded and software teams.
• Understand when a quick and dirty or scrappy solution is appropriate and when to invest for the future.
• Must be eligible to work in the US.
• Must be able to work in person at Zipline’s South San Francisco headquarters.

Responsibilities

• Generate requirements for test systems capturing the vehicle's intended function.
• Define product edge cases from field data and logs for future use.
• Design, build, and maintain critical test systems.
• Manage test systems for early stage designs and prioritize efforts to maximize impact.
• Provide technical guidance to junior engineers and technicians.

Skills

UX design

Mechanical design

Test systems

Cross-functional leadership

Regulatory awareness

In-person work

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

Does quickly developing multiple iterations of systems to test novel components through the extreme environments demanded of aerospace applications sound like the way you want to spend your time? Do you love designing tests for cross‑functional interfaces with little information, full ownership, and the responsibility to make it happen? At Zipline our work is intended for the field. Patients are counting on it today--there is no time for aiming low or coming up short. If leveraging your talent to drive full vehicle test systems to fruition with a small but dedicated team at your side sounds like your cup of tea, please read on.

We are hiring Mechanical Test Engineers across three different teams; Ground Systems, Structures & Mechanisms, and Powertrain & Battery. We are a hardware engineering organization with Mechanical, Electrical, Embedded Systems and Test Engineering and are responsible for the design of all flight hardware and operations equipment; this includes Safety Systems, Primary Structure, Launcher, Recovery System, Battery Chargers, Power System, Network System and countless other mechanisms critical to the function of the vehicle and ground systems. We are working on a product that can be deployed in hours, integrate seamlessly with our customers, and operate without human intervention while being deployed worldwide at scale.

What You'll Do

As a member of the Test Team you will be responsible for cradle‑to‑grave design and implementation of systems used to develop and prove concept functionality and key reliability metrics on the Zipline systems. You will be directly responsible for creation of several major test systems, some of which are well defined, and others which will require you to do critical analysis of what our customers want and what it will take to WOW them before embarking upon the design process. To accomplish this you will need to do the following:

• Work with the product design and reliability teams to generate requirements for test systems that accurately capture the intended function of the vehicle while leaving the door open for future automation and high volume capacity.


• Explore and define product edge cases based on data you collect from the field, existing logs, and in anticipation of future use cases and environments.


• Design, build, and maintain critical test systems


• Manage test systems for early stage designs. This will include ruthlessly prioritizing where our efforts must be spent to get the most out of every precious day.


• Provide technical guidance to junior engineers and technicians.Pivot often as we navigate uncertain regulatory space and learn more about what it will take to really wow our customers.

What You'll Bring

• Design for user experience of mechanical test systems. You can develop a machine that accomplishes complex interactions reliably and can be used by anyone with minimal training.


• Strong mechanical engineering fundamentals. You understand the theory behind good design decisions and have a proven track record of executing these designs to make a test system that is more reliable than the product it is testing.


• Cross functional team management experience such that you can balance the needs of structures, aero, embedded, and software engineering teams to create one product that works for all.


• Understand when we can get away with a quick and dirty or scrappy solution and when it is worth our time and money to make investments in the future.


• Must be eligible to work in the US


• Must be able to work in person at Zipline’s South San Francisco headquarters

What Else You Need to Know

The starting cash range for this role is $130,000 - $180,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies.

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.