Senior Electrical Test Engineer, Hardware Validation

Namely; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is hiring EE Test engineers to own end-to-end validation of PCBAs and avionics, from prototype through fleet deployment. You will translate requirements into measurable test criteria, design and maintain test stands, and automate data collection with Python.

This role requires close collaboration with design, reliability, and manufacturing teams in South San Francisco. You will lead failure investigations, establish regression tests, and ensure robust test evidence for release readiness,

Qualifications

• Hands-on electrical/electromechanical validation ownership from development to field deployment.
• Experience designing and building electrical test rigs and automated cycle-test systems.
• Strong electrical engineering fundamentals and sensor/data-acquisition expertise.
• Experience validating mechanisms with actuators, PCBAs, harnesses, and embedded controls.
• Expertise in experimental design, measurement uncertainty, and accelerated testing.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end validation of PCBAs, avionics products, and power electronics from prototype through fleet deployment.
• Translate product requirements and known failure modes into test criteria and pass/fail gates.
• Develop verification plans with coverage, traceability, sample sizes, margins, acceptance criteria, exit gates.
• Design, build, maintain test stands and fixtures, and automate test rigs.
• Select and integrate instrumentation such as sensors, load cells, accelerometers, DAC/DAQ hardware.
• Produce drawings, BOMs, calibration procedures, and maintenance docs for test equipment.
• Validate interactions among electrical hardware, actuators, sensors, and embedded controls.
• Automate test execution, data collection, and health monitoring using Python or equivalents.
• Define sample sizes, acceleration factors, confidence levels, and acceptance criteria for reliability evidence.
• Correlate bench tests with field telemetry, service records, and observed environmental conditions.
• Lead structured failure investigations and root-cause analyses.
• Partner with Mechanical, Electrical, Embedded Software, and Manufacturing teams to drive corrective actions.
• Establish regression tests to detect hardware/software changes.
• Present evidence and recommendations during design and readiness reviews.
• Work with suppliers and manufacturing partners to validate components and tooling.

Skills

PCBAs validation

Test rigs

Sensor integration

Python automation

Root cause analysis

Failure investigations

Cross-functional collaboration

Lab automation

Statistical methods

Test planning

Tools

Python

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

We are hiring EE Test engineers across multiple different teams; Avionics and Ground Systems. 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.

This is a hands‑on individual‑contributor role spanning test strategy, tester design, 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 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: this role is in person in South San Francisco with regular work in the lab. Travel to suppliers, manufacturers, test locations, and deployment sites is expected based on program needs.
• Periodic off‑hours support may be required 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.

What Else You Need To Know

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 or our own sensibilities.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!