Senior Electrical Test Engineer, Hardware Validation

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

About Zipline

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service, operating on four continents and delivering critical supplies—including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products—every 30 seconds. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system to provide equal access to food, medicine, and essential goods anytime, anywhere.

About the Role

We are hiring equivalent electrical test engineers across Avionics and Ground Systems. This hands‑on individual-contributor role spans test strategy, instrumentation, experimental execution, data analysis, manufacturing test, and failure investigation. You will work closely with design engineers while maintaining independent judgment about test adequacy, product risk, and release readiness.

What You’ll Do

• Own end‑to‑end validation of PCBAs, avionics products, and power electronics from prototype through fleet deployment.
• Translate product requirements, hazard analyses, field conditions, customer workflows, and known failure modes into measurable test requirements and pass/fail criteria.
• Develop verification plans with clear coverage, traceability, sample sizes, margins, acceptance criteria, and exit gates.
• Design, analyze, build, commission, and maintain test stands, fixtures, environmental setups, automated cycle rigs, and representative system test articles.
• Select and integrate instrumentation such as load cells, torque sensors, displacement sensors, accelerometers, strain gauges, thermocouples, cameras, current sensors, and data‑acquisition hardware.
• Produce drawings, tolerance analyses, safety reviews, BOMs, assembly instructions, calibration procedures, and maintenance documentation 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 or equivalent tools.
• Define sample sizes, acceleration factors, confidence levels, and statistical acceptance criteria that produce defensible reliability evidence.
• Correlate bench and accelerated tests with field telemetry, returned hardware, service records, and observed environmental conditions.
• Identify gaps between laboratory tests and field failures, then update test profiles to improve fidelity.
• Lead structured failure investigations using physical inspection, teardown, dimensional measurements, logs, instrumentation, and fault‑tree methods.
• Distinguish product failures from fixture, instrumentation, software, setup, and operator‑induced failures.
• Partner with Mechanical, Electrical, Embedded Software, Systems, Reliability, Manufacturing, Operations, and Safety teams to drive failures to root cause and permanent corrective action.
• Establish regression tests that detect hardware and software changes affecting mechanism performance, safety, or reliability.
• Present test evidence, unresolved risks, and release recommendations clearly during design and readiness reviews.
• Work directly with suppliers and manufacturing partners to validate components, tooling, processes, and production changes.
• Mentor engineers and technicians in fixture design, instrumentation, experimental methods, test execution, and failure analysis.
• Improve test throughput, repeatability, automation, lab utilization, and failure‑to‑answer time.

What You’ll Bring

• Proven ownership of electrical or electromechanical hardware validation through development, qualification, production ramp, and field deployment.
• Deep hands‑on experience designing and building electrical test rigs, fixtures, instrumented assemblies, and automated cycle‑test systems.
• Strong electrical engineering fundamentals.
• Practical experience selecting, installing, calibrating, and troubleshooting sensors and data‑acquisition systems.
• Experience validating mechanisms containing actuators, PCBAs, harnesses, and embedded controls.
• Demonstrated expertise in experimental design, measurement uncertainty, repeatability, sample‑size selection, accelerated testing, and statistical confidence.
• Experience developing automated test and analysis tools using Python or an equivalent language.
• Track record finding root causes for complex or intermittent failures and verifying that corrective actions prevent recurrence.
• Experience testing environmental durability, high‑cycle mechanisms, structural loads, abuse conditions, and fault recovery.
• Ability to translate imperfect field data into representative laboratory tests and actionable engineering conclusions.
• Experience working with design teams, suppliers, manufacturing, and technicians to execute test programs under aggressive schedules.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including concise test plans, reproducible reports, and evidence‑based readiness recommendations.
• Location and logistics: the role is based in South San Francisco, with regular lab work. Travel to suppliers, manufacturers, test locations, and deployment sites is expected, along with periodic off‑hours support during critical builds, test campaigns, production ramps, and field escalations.
• Traits: curiosity, disciplined experimental practice, skepticism of weak evidence, calm troubleshooting, and willingness to remain with a problem until it is understood.

What Success Looks Like

• Delivered repeatable test systems and validation evidence that enable assemblies to meet their reliability and release targets.
• Identified critical failure modes before fleet deployment and verified effective corrective actions.
• Improved correlation between accelerated testing and field performance.
• Reduced test cycle time, manual effort, and failure‑to‑answer time through better fixtures, automation, and analysis.
• Established reusable test methods that increased validation coverage and supported production and fleet expansion.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Zipline is an equal‑opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. We value diversity and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech.