Technical Program Manager, Manufacturing Engineering

Socket.dev; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline designs and operates autonomous aircraft and manufacturing infrastructure. We seek a Technical Program Manager to lead factory-growth programs, including facility construction, equipment installation, and capacity planning.

You will connect shop-floor execution with long-range manufacturing strategy and guide teams through commissioning into stable production. You will coordinate with Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality, Operations, and Finance to create integrated

Qualifications

• 7+ years in technical program management or related engineering fields.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, or business.
• Experience leading cross-functional manufacturing, facilities, or equipment-installation programs through commissioning or production launch.

Responsibilities

• Lead facility construction, equipment installation, and manufacturing infra programs end-to-end.
• Build integrated plans for schedule, budget, resources, risks, and milestones.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams across Manufacturing Eng, Industrial Eng, Ops, Supply Chain, Finance, Design Engineering, contractors, vendors, landlords, regulators.
• Establish governance and stage gates for facility and manufacturing investments, including readiness for pilots and transitions to production.
• Own capacity-model aggregation across products, lines, and facilities; standardize demand, takt time, yield, labor, utilization, downtime, and constraints.
• Translate capacity/growth models into facility footprint, equipment investments, staffing, and production strategy; surface bottlenecks and drive tradeoffs.
• Track outcomes including throughput, labor productivity, equipment utilization, first-pass yield, and capital efficiency.

Skills

Technical Program Management

Manufacturing Engineering

Industrial Engineering

Operations

Facilities

Equipment Engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering/operations/business

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.

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

Zipline designs and operates autonomous aircraft, delivery systems, docks, and supporting infrastructure. Manufacturing Engineering builds the processes, equipment, facilities, and production systems that allow these products to be built safely, reliably, and efficiently at scale.

As a Technical Program Manager, you will lead the cross-functional programs behind factory growth: facility construction, equipment installation, capacity planning, and production scaling. You will connect factory-floor execution with long-range manufacturing strategy, helping teams make informed tradeoffs and move programs through commissioning into stable production.

What You'll Do

• Lead facility construction, equipment installation, and manufacturing infrastructure programs from scope definition through procurement, installation, commissioning, and production readiness.
• Build integrated plans for schedule, budget, resources, dependencies, risks, decisions, and execution milestones across concurrent manufacturing programs.
• Coordinate Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Design Engineering, contractors, vendors, landlords, consultants, and regulatory stakeholders.
• Establish governance, operating rhythms, and stage gates for facility and manufacturing investments, including readiness plans for pilot builds and transitions to stable operations
• Own factory capacity-model aggregation across products, production lines, and facilities; standardize assumptions for demand, takt time, yield, labor, utilization, downtime, and equipment constraints.
• Translate capacity and growth models into recommendations on facility footprint, equipment investment, staffing, and production strategy; surface bottlenecks and drive timely tradeoff decisions.
• Track outcomes including throughput, labor productivity, equipment utilization, first-pass yield, cost of poor quality, schedule adherence, and capital efficiency.

What You'll Bring

• 7+ years of experience in technical program management, manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, operations, facilities, equipment engineering, or a related field.
• A bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, business, or a related discipline.
• Experience leading complex cross-functional manufacturing, facilities, construction, or equipment-installation programs through commissioning or production launch.
• Experience developing production capacity models, labor plans, scaling plans, or long-range operational strategies.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing metrics, including takt time, throughput, labor utilization, yield, cycle time, downtime, and capacity constraints.
• Strong program-management skills across planning, budgeting, risk and dependency management, and executive communication; able to turn detailed analysis into clear recommendations.
• A hands-on approach and willingness to work in manufacturing and construction environments, using Excel or Google Sheets, project-planning software, and presentation tools.

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.