Production Automation Engineer - Equipment & Assembly

Candidate; South San Francisco (CA); Vor Ort; USD 140.000 - 160.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

Zipline is enhancing its South San Francisco manufacturing with an Automation Engineer, Production Equipment. The role focuses on selecting, integrating, and sustaining production automation for aircraft assembly and subsystems, translating throughput and quality needs into concrete equipment requirements.

You will coordinate with internal teams and vendors to deliver stable production. This hands-on, site-based role centers on on-site work with occasional off-hours commissioning and up to 15%

Qualifikationen

• 2+ years designing production equipment, fixtures, or custom automation in a high-volume manufacturing environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent practical experience.
• Mastery of GD&T, tolerance analysis, mechanism design, material selection, and failure‑mode thinking for assembly tooling.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD; Siemens NX preferred (SolidWorks/Creo acceptable with NX learning).
• Hands‑on experience commissioning equipment on the factory floor: supporting fabrication, build, debug, test, and operator training;
• Practical knowledge of pneumatics, actuators, sensors, linear motion, machine guarding, and industrial electrical interfaces used in tooling and small automation.
• Track record delivering quantitative outcomes (cycle time, uptime, FPY, cost per unit) and trade‑offs between throughput, reliability, and maintainability.
• Ability to coordinate vendor builds and perform acceptance testing to technical drawings and QA criteria.
• Must‑have traits: ownership of safety and reliability, decisive technical judgment under schedule pressure, adaptability and rapid iteration.

Aufgaben

• Evaluate automation opportunities against manual work content, cycle time, first-pass yield, uptime, and maintainability; translate approach into equipment requirements.
• Integrate automation into existing assembly workflows; verify vendor systems against acceptance criteria and train operators.
• Own integration and deployment of production automation from requirements through vendor fabrication, build, commissioning, and production release; coordinate with CAD and interfaces.
• Deliver measurable improvements: increase tooling availability above 95%, reduce cycle time by 20-40% per station, and improve FPY by ≥10% in 6–12 months.
• Integrate and install automation with alignment fixtures, torque tooling, ergonomic operator stations, poka‑yoke devices, and end‑of‑line test rigs.
• Perform online debugging and rapid root‑cause analysis during launches and ramp phases; handle weekend/evening commissioning as needed.
• Develop tooling design standards, GD&T, tolerance stacks, and material/process choices meeting safety and maintainability.
• Coordinate cross‑functionally with Design Eng, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Field Operations on tooling scope and schedules.
• Work with fabricators and vendors: write RFQs, evaluate proposals, verify QC, and perform acceptance testing.

Kenntnisse

2+ years experience

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Eng

GD&T tolerance analysis

3D CAD Siemens NX

On-site equipment commissioning

Pneumatics and sensors

Throughput and FPY improvement

Vendor coordination

Safety and reliability ownership

Ausbildung

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Siemens NX

SolidWorks/Creo

Jobbeschreibung

Zipline is enhancing its South San Francisco manufacturing with an Automation Engineer, Production Equipment. The role focuses on selecting, integrating, and sustaining production automation for aircraft assembly and subsystems, translating throughput and quality needs into concrete equipment requirements.

You will coordinate with internal teams and vendors to deliver stable production. This hands-on, site-based role centers on on-site work with occasional off-hours commissioning and up to 15%