Manager - System Test Engineering and Operations

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service, 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 across four continents. Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and has safely flown over 140 million commercial autonomous miles.

About You And The Role

The System Test team is a fast-paced group responsible for pathfinding new hardware and delivering environmental and durability campaigns for Zipline’s major hardware categories. You will lead a small, agile team of test engineers and technicians, owning the system-test facility roadmap, campaign portfolio, and tradeoffs on test capability and execution. This role is core to Zipline’s success, driving hardware-release and reliability decisions through rapid discovery of hardware faults.

Responsibilities

• Own multi-month system-test campaigns demonstrating aircraft and major hardware through replicated flight conditions, extreme environments, and targets exceeding 20,000 cycles per aircraft.
• 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 monsoon ingress 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.
• Adapt quickly to new hardware, programs, and first-of-its-kind testing requirements.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience leading test engineers, equipment designers, and technicians for complex hardware programs.
• Experience planning and running environmental, durability, and reliability test campaigns that inform engineering decisions.
• Strong hardware-debugging intuition and electrical troubleshooting skills for aircraft or similarly complex electromechanical systems.
• Ability to design, build, or specify custom test equipment and facility infrastructure for demanding test conditions.
• Sound judgment to prioritize test capability, campaign scope, and fault investigations across multiple hardware programs.
• Familiarity with disciplined test processes and software for hardware configuration, maintenance, data capture, and test planning.
• Adaptability when bringing new or first-of-its-kind hardware into test while maintaining rigorous evidence and safe execution.
• Excellent problem-solving skills to make progress in complex and changing environments.

Pay

The starting cash range for this role is $170,000–$225,000. The final cash pay depends on experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package may also include equity, bonuses, sales incentives, and benefits such as medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as paid time off.