Senior Electrical Test Engineer - Avionics & Ground Systems

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline, based in South San Francisco, seeks an equivalent Electrical Test Engineer to own validation of PCBAs, avionics, and power electronics from prototype to fleet deployment. You will translate requirements into measurable test criteria and develop verification plans with clear exit gates, while designing test stands and instrumentation to support robust, automated testing.

You will automate data collection, correlate bench with field data, and lead failure investigations, mentoring others

Qualifications

• Ownership of electrical hardware validation from development through field deployment.
• Hands-on experience designing/building test rigs, fixtures, and automated cycle-test systems.
• Strong electrical engineering fundamentals.
• Experience validating actuators, PCBAs, harnesses, and embedded controls.
• Experience developing automated test and analysis tools using Python.
• Track record finding root causes for complex failures.
• Experience testing environmental durability and high-cycle mechanisms.
• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Location and logistics: base in South San Francisco with regular lab work; travel to suppliers and deployment sites.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end validation of PCBAs, avionics products, and power electronics.
• Translate product requirements into measurable test criteria with pass/fail thresholds.
• Develop verification plans with coverage, traceability, sample sizes, margins, and exit gates.
• Design, analyze, build, commission, and maintain test stands, fixtures, environmental setups, automated rigs, and system test articles.
• Select/integrate instrumentation such as load cells, sensors, and data acquisition hardware.
• Produce drawings, tolerances analyses, safety reviews, BOMs, and calibration procedures for test equipment.
• Validate interactions among electrical hardware, actuators, sensors, electronics, and embedded controls.
• Automate test execution, data collection, health monitoring, fault detection, and reporting using Python.
• Define sample sizes, acceleration factors, confidence levels, and statistical criteria for reliability evidence.
• Correlate bench tests with field telemetry and observed environmental conditions.
• Identify gaps between lab tests and field failures; update test profiles accordingly.
• Lead failure investigations using physical inspection, teardown, measurements, logs, instrumentation, and fault trees.
• Distinguish product failures from fixture/instrumentation/software/setup failures.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to drive root cause and corrective actions.
• Establish regression tests to detect hardware/software changes affecting performance or reliability.
• Present evidence and recommendations during design/readiness reviews.
• Collaborate with suppliers and manufacturing partners to validate components and tooling.
• Mentor engineers and technicians in fixture design, instrumentation, and test methods.
• Improve test throughput, repeatability, automation, and lab utilization.

Skills

Electrical test rigs

Data acquisition

Python scripting

Root cause analysis

Experimental design

Lab automation

Cross-functional collaboration

Measurement uncertainty

Job description

Zipline, based in South San Francisco, seeks an equivalent Electrical Test Engineer to own validation of PCBAs, avionics, and power electronics from prototype to fleet deployment. You will translate requirements into measurable test criteria and develop verification plans with clear exit gates, while designing test stands and instrumentation to support robust, automated testing.

You will automate data collection, correlate bench with field data, and lead failure investigations, mentoring others