Senior Mechanical Engineer - Autonomous Drone Systems

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline seeks an experienced mechanical engineer to own the design of entire systems and subassemblies for next generation products that are unlike anything that exists today. This will include design of structural components, mechanisms, and electronics integration.

As a member of our core design team, you will make important decisions about the product architecture and create designs that will enable practical scale on a short timeline that will meet high product reliability targets.

Qualifications

• Ownership of mechanical/electromechanical subassemblies or full systems through NPIs into production.
• Strong fundamentals in load estimation, hand calcs, FEA, and design for assembly/field service.
• Experience designing mechanisms, actuators, and motion-control components.
• Effective collaboration across mechanical, electrical, software, and supply chain teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and ability to travel (<10%).

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of mechanical and electromechanical subsystems from concept to production ramp.
• Defend system-level trade studies, tolerances, load paths, and failure modes.
• Create CAD assemblies, detailed drawings with GD&T, and manufacturing docs for 20–100 part subsystems.
• Develop verification plans and lead test campaigns, analyze results, and drive improvements.
• Lead supplier selection and DFM feedback to reduce NPIs and scrap.
• Partner with Systems, Software, Production, Reliability, and Field Ops to align requirements.
• Translate prototypes into cost-effective designs for medium-volume production and in-field reliability.
• Serve as technical authority in design reviews and postmortems; mentor junior engineers.

Skills

Mechanical design

Electromechanical design

CAD tools

Systems integration

DFM/DFMEA

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

NX

SolidWorks

Job description

Zipline seeks an experienced mechanical engineer to own the design of entire systems and subassemblies for next generation products that are unlike anything that exists today. This will include design of structural components, mechanisms, and electronics integration.

As a member of our core design team, you will make important decisions about the product architecture and create designs that will enable practical scale on a short timeline that will meet high product reliability targets.