Senior High-Voltage Power Electronics Reliability Engineer

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Performance bonuses

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Paid time off

Job summary

Zipline is building autonomous aircraft and ground infrastructure that must operate safely across demanding environments, high utilization, and long service lives. As a Senior or Staff Electrical Hardware Reliability Engineer focused on power electronics, you will serve as the reliability technical lead for some of Zipline’s most critical high‑power electrical systems.

Your initial focus will be our drone charging systems, which convert AC grid power into multiple low‑voltage DC outputs used to

Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering or a related technical discipline.
• At least 5 years of relevant engineering experience, with 8–10+ years strongly preferred for Staff-level scope.
• Deep experience in high-voltage/high-power electrical systems including grid-connected converters and power electronics.
• Strong ability to reason from first principles about hardware behavior and failure.
• Experience leading DFMEA and reliability testing programs.

Responsibilities

• Own the reliability strategy for high-voltage power electronics and power-conversion systems, starting with grid-connected converters.
• Identify and prioritize dominant reliability risks across electrical, thermal, mechanical, environmental, and operational stresses.
• Lead DFMEA efforts with cross-functional teams to identify and mitigate risks.
• Evaluate architectures, schematics, PCB layouts, components, packaging, thermal management, insulation, connectors, and interconnects from a reliability perspective.
• Develop physics-based ALT and environmental test campaigns to validate long-term hardware performance.
• Write clear, technically rigorous test plans and provide reliability sign-off on results.
• Lead failure analysis and structured root-cause investigations from component to system level.
• Define operational life limits and service intervals using test data, field returns, and models.
• Advocate for reliability across functions and scale improvements in methods, tools, and standards.

Skills

Reliability engineering

Power electronics

DFMEA

Accelerated Life Testing (ALT)

Failure analysis

Cross-functional leadership

Technical writing

Education

B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering

Job description

Zipline is building autonomous aircraft and ground infrastructure that must operate safely across demanding environments, high utilization, and long service lives. As a Senior or Staff Electrical Hardware Reliability Engineer focused on power electronics, you will serve as the reliability technical lead for some of Zipline’s most critical high‑power electrical systems.

Your initial focus will be our drone charging systems, which convert AC grid power into multiple low‑voltage DC outputs used to