Senior / Staff Mechanical Design Engineer (All Teams)

About the role

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We deliver critical supplies quickly and reliably, serving all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine, and essential goods. Our customers include major healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants, and global businesses. We operate on four continents, making a delivery every 30 seconds and completing millions of deliveries.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of mechanical subsystems from requirements → design → build → test → release → production sustainment for assigned team(s).
• Deliver a mass-production ready servo mechanism with validated life-cycle test.
• Own and design avionics enclosures considering thermal, EMI, cost, mass, and manufacturing constraints.
• Design battery enclosures that meet MIL-like vibration, thermal/overpressure criteria, and safety requirements.
• Design propulsion and propeller systems using system level inputs while incorporating industry leading technology.
• Guide design through characterization, validation, and to mass production.
• Produce and defend system-level trade studies, tolerance stacks, load paths, failure modes, and hand-calcs that bound designs for safety-critical loads and manufacturability.
• Create CAD assemblies, detailed drawings, GD&T, and manufacturing documentation for 20–100 part assemblies; own design reviews, DFM, and first-article criteria.
• Develop and execute verification plans (environmental, fatigue, vibration, thermal, EMI/EMC where applicable), build test rigs/fixtures, run test campaigns, analyze results, and close findings with corrective actions and measurable reliability improvements.
• Lead supplier selection, qualification, and handoff: drive DFM feedback, define inspection criteria, and reduce supplier NPI cycle time and scrap rates. Own escalation and remediation when supplier output risks field operations.
• Cross-functional interface: partner daily with Systems, Software, Production, Integration & Test, Reliability, and Field Ops to align requirements, manage trade-offs, and eliminate deployment blockers.
• Ship for scale: translate prototypes into designs that meet target cost, cycle time, and inspection rates for medium-volume production; own metrics for manufacturability and in-field reliability and drive them to target.
• Mentor peers (Senior) or set cross-team standards and lead technical programs (Staff). Take technical authority in design reviews and postmortems; lead incident root-cause investigations when field events occur.

Requirements

• 5–15+ years of mechanical/electromechanical design engineering experience delivering complex subsystems or products through NPI into production.
• Proven ownership on ≥2 completed product programs involving electro-mechanical assemblies and supplier transfers.
• Proficient CAD and documentation skills: able to own 3D assemblies and 2D detail drawings for 20–100 part systems; experience with NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent.
• Domain engineering fundamentals: GD&T, hand calcs (beam, buckling, bolted joints), multi-body FEA and thermal analysis experience, and design-for-assembly/field-service practices.
• Test-first mindset: experience planning and executing environmental, vibration, fatigue, and thermal verification; ability to design test fixtures and interpret data.
• Demonstrated supplier/DFM experience and track record reducing NPI cycles, scrap, or supplier defects.
• Clear written and verbal technical communication; ability to present tradeoffs and accept/reject risk decisions to stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Experience with PCBA enclosures, sensor mounts, first-principles thermal design for electronics.
• Experience with battery & PCBA enclosures, connectors, and vibration/thermal robustness testing.
• Familiarity with rotor dynamics, vibrational durability, propeller design, and brushless motor systems.
• Composite and metallic structural design, servo and mechanism design, mass-efficient layouts, and static/dynamic load validation.
• Sheet metal and welded structures, harnessing, and integration for high-reliability field hardware.

Skills

• Strong understanding of mechanical design principles and materials.
• Experience with CAD tools such as NX, SolidWorks, or similar.
• Knowledge of thermal management, vibration, and electromagnetic interference (EMI/EMC).
• Ability to work effectively in a cross-functional team environment.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Effective communication and presentation skills.

Benefits

We offer competitive compensation packages, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for professional growth and development. We also provide a supportive and inclusive work culture that values diversity and encourages innovation.

Pay

Compensation is commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Schedule

We offer flexible working hours and remote work options for certain positions.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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.