Senior Flight Controls Engineer - Autonomy

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably.

Zipline operates on four continents and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our team seeks practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated expertise in controls, flight dynamics, system identification, or modeling of complex physical systems.
• Experience developing and using high-fidelity simulations to evaluate system performance and guide engineering decisions.
• Experience analyzing experimental or flight-test data and using evidence to validate models or improve designs.
• Ability to lead ambiguous technical problems from framing through analysis, recommendation, and cross-functional execution.
• Strong engineering judgment about model assumptions, uncertainty, validation limits, and design tradeoffs.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills for explaining technical findings to engineering and operational partners.
• Comfort working closely with flight-test teams, global fleet data, and customer context to understand real-world system behavior.

Responsibilities

• Own dynamic models of complex vehicle systems within Zipline’s six-degree-of-freedom simulation.
• Build controls algorithms and oversee development, testing, analysis and deployment.
• Define analysis approaches linking design choices to vehicle performance.
• Evaluate designs through simulation, flight-test data, and customer aircraft data.
• Improve simulation fidelity by reconciling predictions with flight behavior.
• Lead recommendations for controls, vehicle, and system design improvements with partners.
• Build reusable analysis tools for performance investigations and tradeoffs.
• Translate operational insights into engineering priorities to improve logistics reliability.

Skills

Controls

Flight dynamics

System identification

Modeling complex systems

Job description

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably.

Zipline operates on four continents and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our team seeks practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth.