Senior Flight Test Engineer — Autonomous Drone Systems

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline, the world’s leading drone-delivery company, is seeking a Senior Flight Test Engineer to lead end-to-end flight test campaigns and integrate automated testing into our program. You will collaborate with mechanical, electrical, software, systems and operations teams to extract rapid insights from hardware, software and operational changes.

You will own system-level flight tests from planning through execution and analysis, translating complex engineering questions into effective test

Qualifications

• 3+ years designing, developing, or validating autonomous robotic systems; UAS experience preferred.
• Strong ability to analyze large test data sets for engineering decisions.
• Experience bringing up and debugging hardware and software systems for automated platforms.
• Systems-level reasoning across structures, aerodynamics, embedded systems, and software.
• Sound judgment about when to move quickly and when to invest in durable infrastructure, process and tooling.
• Experience maintaining and enforcing safety in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally for flight testing (2–6 weeks/year) and work outdoors in varying weather.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead end-to-end flight test campaigns validating aircraft performance, delivery and pickup operations, docking systems, and fleet orchestration.
• Define system-level objectives, success criteria, and test plans with mechanical, electrical, software, systems and operations partners.
• Assess hardware and software readiness, evaluate risk posture, and make flight-readiness decisions before test execution.
• Analyze flight data to identify anomalies, trends, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Produce deployment-readiness recommendations and prioritized corrective actions from campaign evidence.
• Build and integrate automated test tooling that improves test precision, insight, capacity and velocity.

Skills

Autonomous robotics

Data analysis

Hardware integration

Systems thinking

Safety compliance

Travel readiness

Flight testing

Job description

Zipline, the world’s leading drone-delivery company, is seeking a Senior Flight Test Engineer to lead end-to-end flight test campaigns and integrate automated testing into our program. You will collaborate with mechanical, electrical, software, systems and operations teams to extract rapid insights from hardware, software and operational changes.

You will own system-level flight tests from planning through execution and analysis, translating complex engineering questions into effective test