Technical Program Manager, Manufacturing Growth

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Technical Program Manager in South San Francisco to lead cross-functional factory-growth programs, including facility construction, equipment installation, and capacity planning. You will connect shop-floor execution with long-range manufacturing strategy to enable scalable production.

You will drive governance, milestones, and capital efficiency, coordinating across Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and external

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in technical program management, manufacturing engineering, operations, facilities, 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

Technical program management

Cross-functional leadership

Manufacturing Engineering

Operations planning

PM budgeting & risk

Excel/Google Sheets

Project planning software

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, operations, business, or related

Tools

Excel

Google Sheets

Project management tools

Job description

Zipline is seeking a Technical Program Manager in South San Francisco to lead cross-functional factory-growth programs, including facility construction, equipment installation, and capacity planning. You will connect shop-floor execution with long-range manufacturing strategy to enable scalable production.

You will drive governance, milestones, and capital efficiency, coordinating across Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and external