Site Launcher

Telemetry Today LLC; South San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Site Launcher to bring new charging locations and partner sites into service. You will coordinate cross-functionally, validate readiness, and guide sites through first deliveries and handoff to operations.

The role requires hands-on execution, the ability to work with limited direction, and frequent travel to U.S. launch locations. You will prioritize, escalate when needed, and ensure safety and timelines align with launch plans.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years in field operations, deployment, logistics, or site launches.
• Experience leading a workstream with multiple teams and tight deadlines.
• Ability to prioritize, escalate when needed, and act with autonomy.

Responsibilities

• Lead ground launch for assigned sites from pre-launch to handoff.
• Translate plans into action with clear milestones and owners.
• Coordinate across infrastructure, permitting, flight ops, maintenance, and partners.
• Verify readiness on site, confirm equipment, staffing, and approvals before launch.
• Identify risks early and drive mitigations with responsible teams.
• Provide concise field updates and maintain trackers and launch records.
• Ensure smooth operational handoffs and gather learnings for future launches.
• Apply playbooks and checklists to improve repeatability and safety.

Skills

Field ops & deployment

Project coordination

Autonomy & decision-making

Leadership without authority

Written & verbal communication

Organization & follow-through

On-site collaboration

Infrastructure experience (helpful)

Job description

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.

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; expedite 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 3-5 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

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.

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.