Ops Standards and Readiness Lead

About the role

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are dedicated to serving all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine, and essential goods. Our autonomous logistics system delivers critical supplies quickly and reliably across four continents, making a delivery every 30 seconds and completing millions of deliveries since our inception. Our clients include major healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants, and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, and increase economic opportunities.

What You'll Do

• Define measurable standards for flight operations, fleet supervision, and autonomous-system oversight.
• Translate regulatory requirements, safety policy, operational practice, and the P108 regulatory framework into practical performance criteria.
• Design objective evaluation methods, metrics, rubrics, and review processes for operators, supervisors, operational teams, and system performance.
• Own the Standards & Evaluations program, including controlled documentation, audit cycles, change management, and decision records.
• Lead recurring standards and readiness reviews through developmental gates with Training, Safety, Flight Operations, and Engineering.
• Analyze evaluation evidence to identify performance trends and gaps, then recommend targeted changes to training, procedures, policy, or system design.
• Deliver decision-ready readiness assessments that show whether operations meet defined standards, can scale safely, or require corrective action.

What You'll Bring

• Experience owning or materially leading an operational standards, audit, evaluation, or readiness program in a safety- and regulation-critical environment.
• Experience governing standards across a complex, multi-team operating system rather than a single procedure or functional team.
• Leadership qualities including energy, adaptability, and resilience, effective in navigating rapid change, competing priorities, ambiguity, and demanding timelines.
• Experience translating regulatory, policy, and technical inputs into clear operational criteria, controlled documentation, and auditable evidence.
• Experience designing evaluation or audit systems that produce consistent, objective findings rather than subjective judgment.
• Ability to build scalable governance processes, resolve competing inputs, and align Safety, Training, Flight Operations, and Engineering on standards changes.
• Sound judgment assessing safety, reliability, and operational risk as autonomous-system capabilities and operator responsibilities evolve.

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. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!