Mechanical Engineer, Camera & Optical Modules

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service, 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 across four continents. With a delivery every 30 seconds and millions of deliveries completed—including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products—Zipline strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and provides fast, reliable delivery. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and scaling the future of logistics.

About the Role

Zipline builds and operates autonomous delivery systems that move critical goods reliably and safely. Cameras and optical modules provide critical perception inputs used by our aircraft and autonomous systems. Their mechanical design directly affects image quality, calibration stability, environmental robustness, electromagnetic compatibility, and ultimately the system’s ability to operate safely.

As a Mechanical Design Engineer for Camera and Optical Modules, you will own the mechanical architecture and detailed design of camera assemblies from early concept through validation, production ramp, and fleet operation. You will integrate image sensors, lenses, optical windows and filters, electronics, flexes, connectors, thermal paths, shielding, seals, and cleaning or contamination-control features into compact, lightweight, production-ready assemblies. This is a hands-on individual-contributor role at the boundary of mechanical engineering, optics, electronics, perception, thermal design, and high-volume manufacturing.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end mechanical design for camera and optical assemblies, including requirements, architecture, concept selection, CAD, drawings, specifications, tolerance analysis, BOMs, and production release.
• Translate perception, optical, electrical, environmental, and aircraft-level requirements into measurable mechanical requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Establish datum, alignment, and calibration strategies that control lens-to-sensor focus, tilt, decenter, optical-axis orientation, stereo baseline, and camera-to-vehicle boresight.
• Develop tolerance models that connect component and assembly variation to image-quality and perception outcomes, including focus retention, modulation transfer, calibration accuracy, and field-of-view stability.
• Design lightweight housings, mounts, lens barrels, optical-window interfaces, thermal paths, shields, seals, vents, and connector interfaces for high-volume production.
• Integrate image sensors, lenses, filters, PCBAs, SerDes electronics, flex circuits, connectors, heaters, cleaning devices, and local sensors into robust modules.
• Design for rain, dust, mud, insects, condensation, fogging, icing, UV exposure, cleaning chemicals, and other contamination modes that can degrade optical performance.
• Evaluate hydrophobic and oleophobic coatings, protective windows, heaters, air-based cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, shutters, and other contamination-control approaches.
• Define EMI shielding, grounding, and bonding strategies across the housing, lens aperture, sensor PCB, flex, and connector interfaces. Ensure conductive features have intentional grounding and do not create resonant or floating structures.
• Perform first-principles analysis, hand calculations, tolerance analysis, structural FEA, thermal analysis, and vibration or fatigue assessments to establish design margins.
• Define and support mechanical, environmental, and image-quality testing across vibration, shock, thermal cycling, humidity, ingress, solar loading, contamination, and lifetime exposure.
• Lead investigations of prototype, production, and field failures. Identify root cause, implement corrective actions, and verify that recurrence rates decrease.
• Maintain clear interface-control documentation, design assumptions, analysis, validation evidence, and release records.

Requirements

• Experience designing camera modules, optical instruments, perception sensors, robotics hardware, automotive electronics, aerospace hardware, or similarly compact electromechanical products.
• Strong mechanical fundamentals, including structural mechanics, thermal design, material selection, bolted joints, adhesive joints, sealing, vibration, fatigue, and tolerance analysis.
• Advanced CAD, GD&T, datum-strategy, drawing-release, and tolerance-stack skills.
• Practical understanding of camera and optical alignment concepts such as focus, tilt, decenter, boresight, field of view, stereo baseline, calibration stability, and image-quality sensitivity.
• Experience with relevant manufacturing processes such as precision machining, die casting, injection molding, stamping, optical bonding, adhesive dispensing, coating, and clean assembly.
• Track record of resolving difficult mechanical, optical, thermal, or intermittent field failures through disciplined root-cause analysis.
• Experience working directly with suppliers and manufacturing teams to improve yield, capability, cost, and assembly repeatability.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including the ability to document assumptions, residual risks, design margins, and release recommendations.

Nice to Have

• Experience with automotive, aerospace, drone, or robotic camera systems.
• Experience correlating mechanical variation with optical metrics such as MTF, distortion, focus, or calibration error.
• Experience with camera cleaning systems, optical coatings, condensation mitigation, or contamination detection.
• Familiarity with GMSL, MIPI, camera SerDes, local image processing, or high-speed camera interconnects.
• Experience designing EMI shielding and grounding for camera modules and high-speed electronics.
• Experience developing mechanically stable stereo or multi-camera systems.
• Familiarity with automated optical alignment, calibration, and end-of-line image-quality testing.

What Success Looks Like

• Camera modules consistently meet image-quality, calibration, thermal, mass, and environmental requirements across manufacturing variation and operating life.
• Optical alignment and focus remain stable through vibration, shock, temperature cycling, contamination, and years of field operation.
• Designs ramp to production while meeting agreed yield, cost, cycle-time, and supplier-capability targets.
• Cleaning and environmental-protection features measurably reduce obscured images, maintenance actions, and camera-related availability losses.
• Mechanical and EMI design changes reduce camera-related perception faults, GNSS desense risks, and field failures.
• The resulting architecture supports future camera generations, sensor changes, and cost reduction without requiring a complete mechanical redesign.

Pay

The starting cash range for this role is $135,000 - $225,000. The final cash pay depends on experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package may also include equity compensation, discretionary annual or performance bonuses, sales incentives, benefits such as medical, dental, and vision insurance, and paid time off.

Schedule

This role is based in South San Francisco and requires regular hands-on work in the lab. Travel to suppliers, manufacturers, and test locations will be required as program needs dictate. Periodic off-hours support may be required during test campaigns, production ramps, or urgent field investigations.