Head of Aero

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, making 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.

About You and the Role

The role is for the Head of Aerodynamics, a leadership position on a team central to Zipline’s success. You will lead and develop the team responsible for conceptual design for new vehicles, significant hardware revisions of existing platforms, building high quality aerodynamics plant models, advanced surfacing of all wetted surfaces, propeller designs, test hardware and methods, and aero measurement tools. You will have a minimum of 6+ years of industry experience, and either be a proven people leader or clearly ready to own and develop a small team (5-7 direct reports).

What You'll Do

• Conceptual design for new vehicles, as well as significant hardware revisions of existing platforms
• Building high quality aerodynamics plant models that are carefully validated through ground- and flight-based testing
• Advanced surfacing of all wetted surfaces (both external and internal), which are used by mechanical designers as inputs to produce the final parts
• Designing and maintaining our test hardware and methods, including internal wind tunnels, bench test set-ups, and instrumented flight test assets, as well as the essential aero measurement tools

What You'll Bring

• A proven record of building and managing small teams
• World-class experience in solving vehicle aerodynamic design challenges
• An unrivaled grasp of the fundamentals of applied aerodynamics, aircraft design, and aeroacoustics
• A disciplined and first-principles approach
• A deep connection and understanding at the system and product levels
• Natural curiosity and ability to work seamlessly with individuals and teams both inside and outside of your core engineering / scientific discipline

Experience Required

• Detail flow analysis via Computational Fluid Dynamics using packages such as Fluent, Star-CCM+, openFOAM, powerFlow
• Generative design of three-dimensional aerodynamic objects, using advanced surfacing techniques in packages such as CATIA or NX
• Hands-on experimental aerodynamics, for example wind tunnel testing, using a variety of techniques including basic flow visualizations (surface oil flow, tufting), pressure measurements (e.g. pressure scanning, pressure sensitive paints), optical flow diagnostics (e.g. LDV, PIV) and load measurement
• Use of low and mid fidelity tools for basic aircraft sizing, for example XFOIL, XROTOR, OpenVSP, RCASF
• Fundamental understanding of a range of aero fundamentals, including: vortex dynamics, boundary layers, turbulence, finite wing theory, aircraft dynamics, three-dimensional flow separation, propeller theory, aeroacoustics, heat and mass transfer, internal flows, fan theory

What Else You Need To Know

• This role is based out of our South San Francisco HQ with a minimum of 5 days per week in office
• You must be eligible to work in the US and travel globally as needed
• The starting cash range for this role is $235,000 to $255,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. 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; 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, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies