Senior System Test Technician - Flight Hardware & Debug

Namely; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 95,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Sr. Test Technician for the System Test team in South San Francisco. You will develop and run large-scale environmental test campaigns for Zipline’s hardware lines, including wind tunnels and thermal chambers, while maintaining and upgrading test assets and documenting procedures.

Strong electromechanical skills and Linux experience are valued. The role combines autonomous decision-making with cross‑team collaboration, overseeing complex tests from development to deployment

Responsibilities

• Operate System Test aircraft and ground-system equipment, and manage large-scale test campaigns.
• Troubleshoot, maintain, and upgrade aircraft and other Zipline hardware assets.
• Troubleshoot and maintain complex test assets (wind tunnels, walk-in thermal chambers, ingress rigs).
• Develop and maintain checklists and documentation for system tests especially for issue triaging.
• Manage multiple priorities and shepherd aircraft through different programmatic stages.
• Troubleshoot real test failures, working with engineering teams to diagnose first-of-their-kind failures.
• Help design and commission large-scale test capabilities at Zipline: Multiple full-vehicle wind tunnels, Walk-in thermal chambers, High Temperature High Humidity chambers, Monsoon Ingress Test Cell, Freeze-thaw test chambers, Lightning and other tests
• Complex instrumentation and data acquisition for R&D vehicle tests (strain, acceleration, temperature, acoustics)
• Develop best practices for aircraft maintenance, utilizing Zipline software systems to support System Test, and advocating for features needed for System Test use-cases.
• Develop documentation to be able to ‘operationalize’ ground-based system test.
• Align with engineering on the best course of action to achieve system test goals, especially for new technical findings.
• Be comfortable working with latest software developments and controlling experimental aircraft through command line interfaces.

Job description

Zipline is seeking a Sr. Test Technician for the System Test team in South San Francisco. You will develop and run large-scale environmental test campaigns for Zipline’s hardware lines, including wind tunnels and thermal chambers, while maintaining and upgrading test assets and documenting procedures.

Strong electromechanical skills and Linux experience are valued. The role combines autonomous decision-making with cross‑team collaboration, overseeing complex tests from development to deployment