Site Launcher

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Paid time off

Travel opportunities

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Site Launcher to be the on-the-ground lead for bringing new charging locations and partner sites into service. You will translate launch plans into action, coordinating teams across infrastructure, permitting, flight operations, and community engagement to achieve readiness and first deliveries.

You will operate with autonomy, making sound decisions, and escalating when needed while reporting progress and risks.

Qualifications

• Typically 3–7 years of relevant site operations, deployment or logistics experience.
• Experience owning a project or workstream through completion with multiple teams.
• Strong judgment, autonomy, and decision-making within your scope.
• Ability to lead without formal authority and hold others accountable constructively.
• Clear written and verbal communication with concise status updates.
• Excellent organization and follow-through; able to adapt when plans change.
• Willingness to travel frequently to U.S. launch locations (around 50%).

Responsibilities

• Lead the launch on the ground as primary day-to-day coordinator for sites.
• Maintain site launch plans with milestones, owners, dependencies and deadlines.
• Align infrastructure, permitting, regulatory, flight ops, maintenance, and partners.
• Verify readiness firsthand and confirm checks and approvals before launch.
• Identify risks, drive mitigations, and escalate safety concerns when needed.
• Provide concise updates on readiness, blockers, and schedule impact.
• Ensure smooth handoff to ongoing operations and capture field learnings.

Skills

Field operations

Logistics

Project coordination

Autonomy

Communication

Leadership without authority

Attention to detail

Job description

About Zipline
Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products.

About ZiplineZipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations.

Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe.

We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds.

About You And The Role

As a Site Launcher, you are the on-the-ground point person for bringing new Zipline charging locations and partner sites into service. You turn launch plans into coordinated action: bringing teams together, verifying readiness, resolving blockers, and carrying each assigned site through first deliveries and handoff to ongoing operations.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role with real ownership. You will be trusted to run day-to-day site execution without constant direction, lead people who do not report to you, and make sound decisions as conditions change. You will work closely with the Launch Manager on broader planning and major tradeoffs, while owning daily priorities, follow-through, and clear communication from the field. You know when to act independently, when to bring in a functional expert, and when to escalate.

Success means sites are genuinely ready to launch, teams know what comes next, and risks are visible early enough to act.

What You'll Do

• Lead the launch on the ground. Serve as the primary day-to-day coordination point for assigned sites, from pre-launch preparation through launch, early operations, and handoff.
• Turn the plan into action. Maintain site-level launch plans with clear milestones, dependencies, owners, and deadlines. Set daily priorities, run focused check-ins, and follow commitments through to completion.
• Bring teams together. Align infrastructure, permitting, regulatory, flight operations, maintenance, commercial, community engagement, and partner teams around the launch plan. Resolve gaps between workstreams so critical tasks do not fall between teams.
• Verify readiness firsthand. Walk the site, validate reported progress with functional owners, and confirm site, equipment, staffing, partner, and operational readiness against required gates. Confirm required checks and approvals are complete before launch; do not trade safety for schedule.
• Manage risks and resolve blockers. Identify risks early, assess their impact, and drive mitigations with the responsible teams. Resolve issues within your scope; escalate safety concerns immediately and larger tradeoffs early, with clear facts, options, and a recommendation.
• Report a clear picture from the field. Provide concise, accurate updates on what is ready, what has changed, what is blocked, the schedule impact, and which decisions or help are needed. Keep site plans, trackers, and launch records current.
• Complete a clear operational handoff. Stay engaged through early operations, confirm the receiving team has the information it needs, and ensure remaining actions have agreed owners and deadlines.
• Make the next launch better. Apply standard playbooks, readiness checklists, and reporting tools. Capture field learnings and recommend practical improvements that make launches safer, smoother, and more repeatable.

What You'll Bring

• Typically 3–7 years of relevant experience in field operations, deployment, logistics, project coordination, or physical-site launches, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Experience owning a project, rollout, or operational workstream through completion in an environment with multiple teams and time-sensitive dependencies.
• Sound judgment and autonomy: you can prioritize, make decisions within your scope, and recognize when an issue needs escalation rather than improvisation.
• Ability to lead without formal authority, build trust with field teams and partners, and hold others accountable constructively.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including concise status updates that distinguish confirmed facts from assumptions and make the next action obvious.
• Strong organization, attention to detail, and follow-through, with the composure to adapt when plans change.
• Comfort working on-site and traveling frequently to U.S. launch locations. Approximately 50% travel is expected.
• Experience with physical infrastructure, construction, or real estate is helpful, but not required.

What Else You Need To Know

The starting cash range for this role is $125,00 - $175,000; please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. We are always open to negotiation. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; overtime pay; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.