System Test Engineering & Operations Lead

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 220,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline in South San Francisco seeks a System Test lead to drive multi‑month campaigns for aircraft and major hardware under replicated flight conditions. You will hire, mentor, and develop test engineers and technicians while shaping the system‑test facility roadmap and campaign portfolio.

You’ll design test plans across vibration, wind, thermal, and ingress, deliver large‑scale test assets like wind tunnels and thermal chambers, and ensure disciplined handoffs to flight tests.

Qualifications

• Experience leading test engineers and technicians on hardware programs.
• Experience planning environmental, durability, and reliability campaigns.
• Strong hardware-debugging intuition and electrical troubleshooting skills.
• Ability to design or specify custom test equipment and facility infrastructure.
• Disciplined test processes and data capture are essential.

Responsibilities

• Own multi‑month system‑test campaigns that demonstrate aircraft and major hardware through replicated flight conditions.
• Hire, lead, and develop test engineers and technicians who build assets, execute campaigns, and diagnose hardware faults.
• Set the test‑facility roadmap, including equipment design, procurement, custom development, aerodynamic design, and thermal design.
• Architect test plans combining vibration, wind, rain, thermal, ingress, freeze‑thaw, lightning, and other environmental exposures.
• Deliver and upgrade large‑scale test assets, including full‑vehicle wind tunnels, walk‑in thermal chambers, high‑temperature/high‑humidity chambers, and test cells.
• Establish operating processes for simultaneous test legs and clean handoffs of tested hardware to flight‑test programs.
• Drive in‑house software tools for aircraft maintenance, cycle‑life counting, and test planning to improve campaign execution and decision quality.
• Be extremely adaptive to new hardware, new programs, and getting first‑of‑its‑kind hardware into testing.

Skills

Leadership

Test campaigns

Hardware debugging

Electrical troubleshooting

Test equipment design

Test planning

Adaptability

Problem solving

Job description

Zipline in South San Francisco seeks a System Test lead to drive multi‑month campaigns for aircraft and major hardware under replicated flight conditions. You will hire, mentor, and develop test engineers and technicians while shaping the system‑test facility roadmap and campaign portfolio.

You’ll design test plans across vibration, wind, thermal, and ingress, deliver large‑scale test assets like wind tunnels and thermal chambers, and ensure disciplined handoffs to flight tests.