Software Engineering Manager, Launch & Scale Platform

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.

Our customers include healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants, and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide fast delivery services.

Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe.

About You and The Role

You are the Software Engineering Manager for Zipline's Launch & Scale Platform: the leader who builds the software systems that enable Zipline to rapidly deploy new infrastructure around the world. This team owns the operational platform that turns a new market from an idea into a live, revenue-generating network—covering site acquisition, infrastructure design, permitting, construction execution, deployment tracking, and launch readiness.

This is a greenfield product and engineering leadership role. You will establish the product roadmap, technical vision, and engineering foundations for a platform intended to scale Zipline from tens of sites to hundreds or thousands.

What You'll Do

• Own end-to-end strategy, delivery, and operational reliability for the Launch & Scale Platform.
• Define and prioritize the product and technical roadmap with stakeholders.
• Reduce manual coordination across launch workflows and improve predictability of launch dates.
• Translate operational processes into durable systems with workflow automation and auditability.
• Design and operate production services for business-critical launch systems.
• Build integrations across ERP, GIS, document management, permitting systems, construction tools, asset management, and internal operational systems.
• Ship code, lead architecture reviews, review critical pull requests, and troubleshoot production incidents.
• Hire, coach, and scale the engineering organization.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with operational and technical teams.

What You'll Bring

• Engineering Manager experience leading backend or full-stack operational platforms.
• 6+ years building software products.
• 2+ years managing engineers or equivalent leadership experience.
• Experience with distributed systems, workflow orchestration, event-driven architectures, APIs, and scalable backend services.
• Experience integrating ERP, GIS, and document systems.
• Experience modeling workflows, physical assets, and complex state transitions.
• Track record of delivering measurable operational outcomes.
• Experience owning production services and designing for operational reliability.
• Strong technical judgment, prioritization, and stakeholder influence.

Logistics

This role can be based in South San Francisco or remote within the U.S. Regular travel is expected to collaborate closely with stakeholders, understand operational challenges firsthand, and build software grounded in real-world workflows.

Additional Information

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity and inclusion in the workplace.