July 18, 2026

Test Equipment Design Engineer

Mid • On-site

South San Francisco, CA

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 rapid 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

Zipline builds autonomous delivery aircraft and ground systems that operate daily in varied field conditions. As an Electromechanical Test Equipment Design Engineer, you will own the design and development of the test systems that enable engineers to characterize, validate, qualify, and manufacture battery and power electronics hardware with confidence.

The Battery & Power Electronics team is responsible for delivering power throughout the aircraft—including batteries, power distribution systems, busbars, and power connectors. You will develop custom test equipment integrating mechanical design, electrical hardware, instrumentation, controls, automation, and software to create robust, scalable systems that accelerate product development and generate accurate, repeatable engineering data.

This role is open to engineers at all levels. Responsibilities and scope will scale with experience—from owning individual fixtures and subsystems to leading the architecture and strategy for complex validation infrastructure spanning multiple aircraft programs.

What You'll Do

  • Own end-to-end development of crash safety equipment from requirements through concept, design, fabrication, commissioning, validation, and continuous improvement.
  • Design and develop custom mechanical test equipment supporting impact, crush, penetration, drop, abuse, fire, vibration, and structural testing of batteries and aircraft hardware.
  • Design structural frames, fixtures, reaction structures, containment systems, mounting interfaces, and mechanisms capable of safely supporting high-energy testing.
  • Develop systems utilizing hydraulic, pneumatic, servo-electric, and mechanical actuation to apply controlled static and dynamic loading.
  • Perform engineering analyses including hand calculations, tolerance stacks, bolted joint design, load path analysis, FEA, fatigue assessments, and failure mode evaluations.
  • Produce CAD assemblies, detailed drawings, GD&T, bills of materials, and manufacturing documentation for fabricated and machined assemblies.
  • Design equipment with operator safety as a primary requirement, incorporating guarding, interlocks, energy isolation, debris containment, fire mitigation, and ergonomic considerations.
  • Partner with electrical, controls, and software engineers to integrate instrumentation, sensors, data acquisition, and automation into mechanical test systems.
  • Build, commission, troubleshoot, validate, and continuously improve laboratory equipment.
  • Support crash safety, abuse, and structural validation campaigns by rapidly developing new test capability and modifying existing equipment.
  • Work closely with Mechanical Design, Reliability, Systems Engineering, Manufacturing, Integration & Test, and Safety teams to translate validation requirements into practical engineering solutions.
  • Lead supplier engagement for fabricated equipment, machined components, welded structures, hydraulic systems, and custom mechanical assemblies.

What You'll Bring

  • Experience designing mechanical systems, structural equipment, automated machinery, manufacturing equipment, or engineering test equipment.
  • Strong mechanical design skills using NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent CAD software.
  • Strong engineering fundamentals including machine design, structural analysis, GD&T, tolerance analysis, hand calculations, bolted joints, fatigue, material selection, and design for manufacturing.
  • Experience performing structural analysis using hand calculations and FEA.
  • Familiarity with hydraulic, pneumatic, servo-electric, or other high-force actuation systems.
  • Experience designing welded structures, machined assemblies, and fabricated equipment.
  • Hands-on experience assembling, commissioning, troubleshooting, and improving mechanical equipment.
  • Experience supporting crash, impact, abuse, structural, environmental, or durability testing is preferred.
  • Demonstrated ability to collaborate across multidisciplinary engineering teams and communicate technical tradeoffs effectively.

Additional Information

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.

We value diversity and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech.

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South San Francisco, CA

🏢 Summary: Mechanical Engineer role focused on designing, validating, and scaling structural and electromechanical hardware for long-range autonomous delivery aircraft. The position involves end-to-end ownership of airframe subsystems, from CAD design and simulation through production ramp and field sustainment, with close collaboration across engineering, manufacturing, and operations teams. 🗂️ Requirements: 4+ years of experience designing electromechanical and structural assemblies, Experience owning complex subassemblies through full product lifecycle, Advanced CAD proficiency, Strong GD&T knowledge, Experience creating manufacturing-ready drawings and inspection criteria, FEA and mechanical analysis experience, Hands-on prototyping and validation testing experience, Supplier engagement and DFM experience, Experience with structural components, mechanisms, composites, or metallic assemblies, Ability to travel to suppliers, production sites, and field depots 📃 Skills: CAD, GD&T, FEA, DFM, NX, Composites, Injection, Stamping, Extrusion, Prototyping, Manufacturing, Simulation 🏢 Description: 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. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world's largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we've built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. 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. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people's lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. About You and The Role You are an owner-oriented Mechanical Engineer joining Zipline's Long Range Platform team to design, validate, and deliver critical airframe and electromechanical hardware used in long-distance autonomous delivery aircraft. This role sits at the intersection of field logistics, fleet operations, and mass production: your work will reduce aircraft weight, increase structural and mechanism reliability in harsh field conditions, and enable higher sortie rates for customers who depend on predictable, high-uptime deliveries. You will operate with end-to-end hardware responsibility—from requirement definition and architecture trade-offs through prototype validation, supplier integration, production ramp, and in-field sustainment—and you will make decisions that directly affect fleet availability, safety margins, and cost-per-delivery. What You'll Do - Own specific Long Range mechanical subsystems (e.g., wing/fuselage primary structure, deployable delivery mechanism, landing gear and attach fittings, or integrated payload-mount assemblies) and be the primary technical lead from concept to sustained production. - Translate operational and fleet requirements into quantitative mechanical performance targets and design architectures. - Produce and iterate detailed CAD models, tolerance stacks, GD&T, and manufacturing drawings enabling supplier quotes, DFx reviews, and inspection plans for volume production. - Run first-principles analysis and engineering simulation (FEA, buckling, fatigue, jointed-assembly loads) and validate with bench tests and flight-representative test rigs. - Prototype rapidly, lead hands-on build-test-iterate campaigns, and produce test plans tied to release criteria and field reliability goals. - Define and own verification matrices, failure modes and corrective actions through qualification and production ramp. - Partner with Electrical, Software, Integration/Test, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, and Operations teams to resolve cross-functional tradeoffs and production issues. - Support field deployments and production startups as required. What You'll Bring - 4+ years industry experience designing electromechanical and structural assemblies. - Demonstrated ownership of complex subassemblies through full product cycles. - Deep CAD fluency and rigorous GD&T skills. - Experience producing manufacturing-ready drawings and inspection criteria. - Proven track record applying FEA, hand calculations, tolerance analysis, and test correlation. - Hands-on prototyping and test experience. - Direct supplier engagement experience. - Experience with structural components, mechanisms, fastener systems, composites, or metallic airframe-scale assemblies. - Willingness and ability to travel as needed. - Strong end-to-end ownership mindset. Location & Logistics This role is based in the listed Long Range engineering location (on-site or hybrid as specified by the team). Expect regular on-site collaboration during critical phases and periodic travel to supplier/manufacturing sites and field depots. Nice-to-have - Aerospace or automotive validation experience. - Composites design experience. - High-efficiency electric powertrain exposure. - NX proficiency. - Experience scaling prototypes to injection molding, stamping, or extrusion processes. What Else You Need To Know Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type. We value diversity and welcome applications from candidates who may not meet every qualification listed.

Technology

Zipline

Software Engineer, Test Infrastructure

Senior

On-site

South San Francisco, CA

🏢 Summary: Software engineering role focused on building and maintaining hardware-in-the-loop test infrastructure and validation tools for autonomous drone systems. The position involves developing scalable automated testing frameworks, supporting flight test operations, and validating embedded and cloud software for safety-critical logistics systems. 🗂️ Requirements: 4+ years of software engineering experience in safety-critical hardware-backed systems, Experience with Python, Experience with pytest, Experience testing Rust embedded systems, Experience testing C embedded systems, Experience with CI/CD, Experience developing and executing test plans for embedded and cloud software, Ability to debug complex software and hardware validation issues 📃 Skills: Python, pytest, Rust, C, CI/CD, Linux, HIL, Embedded 🏢 Description: 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. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world's largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we've built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. 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. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people's lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. About You and The Role Zipline is looking for software engineers to build the tools and infrastructure that power our systems validation and flight test organizations. This team develops precise, efficient, and scalable software solutions used to validate aircraft and ground systems at every level. Our work spans everything from integrating real avionics, sensors, actuators, and radios with high-fidelity simulated environments in bench-top Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) setups, to building applications that plan, orchestrate, and evaluate thousands of automated nominal and off-nominal real-world flight tests every day. This role directly impacts the speed, confidence, and quality of hardware and software development at Zipline. In this role, you will develop a deep understanding of Zipline's end-to-end logistics system and work closely with cross-functional partners who rely on your tools to deliver reliable, flight-ready software. Most importantly, the systems you build will serve as the final line of defense before software and hardware is deployed globally to perform critical, real-world deliveries. What You'll Do - Design, develop, and maintain HIL test infrastructure that integrates real aircraft hardware with simulated systems and environments. - Develop software tools, frameworks, and services to enable large-scale automated and semi-automated system validation. - Support a high-throughput flight test organization running thousands of daily tests, from targeted regression tests to rare off-nominal scenarios. - Write and maintain test software, drivers, and interfaces for embedded and Linux-based systems. - Support test framework architecture designs and improvements. - Debug complex validation failures spanning simulation, hardware, firmware, and application software. - Collaborate with flight test engineers, systems engineers, avionics, autonomy and embedded software teams to define system-level validation strategies. - Improve test reliability, debuggability, and signal-to-noise as systems and test volume scale. What You'll Bring - 4+ years of experience in software engineering for complex, hardware-backed, safety-critical systems. - Extensive experience in Python, specifically using test systems (e.g. pytest). - Experience testing Rust and/or C embedded systems. - Extensive experience working with CI/CD. - Experience developing and executing test plans for complex, safety critical, embedded and cloud software. - Strong problem-solving and ability to quickly learn a new system for testing purposes. 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!

Technology

Zipline

Mechanical Test Engineering Manager (SMI)

Senior

On-site

South San Francisco, CA

🏢 Summary: Mechanical Test Engineering Manager role leading multidisciplinary teams to validate and scale safety-critical drone hardware for Zipline’s Platform 2 eVTOL system. The position focuses on test strategy, hardware reliability, automation, and full product lifecycle delivery in a high-volume manufacturing environment. Based in South San Francisco with limited travel to field sites and test ranges. 🗂️ Requirements: Experience leading engineering teams developing safety-critical hardware, Expertise in test hardware design, Experience with software interfacing and automation, Knowledge of structures and mechanisms testing, Experience with reliability and performance validation, Experience managing and developing engineering teams, Experience delivering products through full product development lifecycle, Ability to lead multidisciplinary technical teams, Eligibility to work in the US 📃 Skills: Testing, Automation, Hardware, Validation, Reliability, eVTOL, Mechanisms, Structures, Engineering 🏢 Description: 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. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world's largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we've built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. 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. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people's lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. About You and The Role Zipline is hiring a Mechanical Test Engineering Manager that is excited to lead the team responsible for testing and validating the function and reliability of safety critical hardware at Zipline. A specific focus will be on our new system, Platform 2, as it enters the next phase of development. Platform 2 represents a groundbreaking innovation for Zipline as we prepare to manufacture 100's of thousands of these life-saving drones, making it our most ambitious and impactful project to date. This is not just another drone project; it's a game-changing hybrid eVTOL that will revolutionize the way life-saving products are delivered around the world. In this role, you will be responsible for leading a multidisciplinary team of test engineers, with broad cross-functional engagement to deliver performant, safe and proven hardware across the range of initial development testing to full validation test. This effort will enable Zipline's impact to expand from 100's of thousand deliveries/year to 100's of millions in a wide variety of environmental conditions around the world. You will act as a player-coach who is as comfortable providing strategic vision as they are being in the weeds of the team's designs, builds, analysis and reviews. This role is based at Zipline's test lab facility in South San Francisco. Travel to field sites and test ranges is typically 5-10% depending on program phase. You will help Zipline evolve its hardware testing philosophy and capacity, and grow the team in the process. The success of this team is vital to the success of Zipline overall. What You'll Do - Lead a team of test engineers and specialists. - Contribute to the overall intuition of the design engineering team through close involvement in design reviews, prototyping, and testing of components and assemblies. - Design, build, operate, purchase and maintain test equipment. - Develop strategies and test campaigns to efficiently evaluate function, reliability and safety of critical components and assemblies. - Root cause failures alongside design engineers and create elegant solutions. - Raise the bar for the existing team by creating a vision for the future of the team based on company goals. - Scope out areas where growth is needed and make key hires. - Establish a team culture focused on action, testing ideas, and delivering reliable designs. - Motivate the team with a clear vision while maintaining a high standard for technical quality. - Build the team by hiring world class engineers. What You'll Bring - Past success leading engineering teams to rapidly develop first-of-its-kind hardware and deploy it into the field with the rigor required for high-volume or safety-critical applications. - Deep technical expertise in test hardware design, software interfacing, automation, structures, mechanisms, and reliability testing. - Enthusiasm for building and growing a high-performing engineering team. - Experience managing and developing engineering teams. - Experience bringing products through the full product development lifecycle. - Must be eligible to work in the US. 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. 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!

Technology

Zipline

Cell Test Engineer

Mid

On-site

South San Francisco, CA

🏢 Summary: Cell Test Engineer role focused on developing and executing battery cell validation programs for autonomous delivery aircraft. The position involves testing lithium-ion cell performance, safety, aging, and reliability using advanced laboratory instrumentation and automation tools. Engineers will collaborate across battery, systems, manufacturing, and supplier teams to improve aircraft battery systems and support product development decisions. 🗂️ Requirements: Experience in battery cell engineering or validation engineering, Experience with battery cell characterization, life testing, abuse testing, or reliability testing, Strong understanding of lithium-ion battery chemistry, degradation, thermal behavior, and electrical performance, Experience operating battery cyclers, environmental chambers, DAQ systems, and laboratory instrumentation, Experience developing automated test software or data analysis tools, Ability to design experiments and analyze large experimental datasets, Familiarity with battery safety standards and abuse testing methodologies, Experience with thermocouples, RTDs, voltage and current measurement, impedance measurement, and thermal imaging, Strong written and verbal technical communication skills 📃 Skills: Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, DAQ, RTDs, thermocouples, lithium-ion, thermal, instrumentation, automation, cyclers, impedance, thermal-imaging 🏢 Description: 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. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world's largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we've built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. 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. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people's lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. About You and The Role Zipline builds autonomous delivery aircraft and ground systems that operate daily in demanding field environments. The performance, reliability, and safety of our aircraft begin at the battery cell. As a Cell Test Engineer, you will develop the test systems, methodologies, and data that characterize cell performance, validate new technologies, and improve the safety and reliability of our battery systems. The Battery & Power Electronics team is responsible for delivering power throughout the aircraft—from individual cells to complete battery packs and power distribution systems. You will design and execute experiments that evaluate electrical performance, thermal behavior, degradation, abuse tolerance, and lifetime across multiple cell technologies, enabling critical engineering and sourcing decisions. This role is open to engineers at all levels. Responsibilities and technical scope will be matched to experience, with opportunities to grow from owning individual test programs to defining cell validation strategy across multiple aircraft platforms. What You'll Do - Own end-to-end development of cell validation programs from requirements → experiment design → execution → analysis → engineering recommendations → continuous improvement. - Develop and execute cell characterization programs evaluating capacity, impedance, power capability, efficiency, thermal behavior, and aging performance. - Design validation plans covering electrical, thermal, environmental, mechanical, and abuse testing to qualify cells for drone applications. - Design experiments that evaluate cycle life, calendar aging, fast charging, temperature performance, storage conditions, and operational limits. - Develop custom fixtures, instrumentation, wiring, thermal interfaces, and automation supporting repeatable, high-throughput cell testing. - Operate and improve battery cyclers, environmental chambers, thermal measurement systems, DAQ equipment, and laboratory instrumentation. - Develop automated test scripts, data processing pipelines, and reporting tools using Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, or equivalent software. - Analyze large experimental datasets to identify degradation mechanisms, performance trends, failure modes, and opportunities for optimization. - Perform post-test teardown inspections and correlate electrical performance with mechanical and thermal observations. - Support abuse testing including crush, penetration, thermal runaway propagation, overcharge, short circuit, vibration, shock, and environmental exposure. - Work closely with battery design, systems engineering, reliability, manufacturing, and suppliers to define validation plans and support product development decisions. - Develop laboratory procedures, calibration methods, safety documentation, and standardized test methodologies that improve repeatability and engineering efficiency. - Support supplier qualification, incoming cell validation, technology benchmarking, and root cause investigations involving field-return hardware. What You'll Bring - Experience in battery cell engineering, electrochemical testing, energy storage systems, or validation engineering appropriate to your career level. - Experience developing or executing battery cell characterization, life testing, abuse testing, or reliability testing. - Strong understanding of lithium-ion battery fundamentals including cell chemistry, degradation mechanisms, thermal behavior, and electrical performance. - Experience operating battery cyclers, environmental chambers, DAQ systems, thermal instrumentation, and laboratory equipment. - Experience developing automated test software or data analysis tools using Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, or equivalent platforms. - Ability to design experiments using statistical methods and interpret large experimental datasets. - Familiarity with battery safety standards and abuse testing methodologies. - Experience with instrumentation including thermocouples, RTDs, current and voltage measurement, impedance measurement, and thermal imaging. - Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate technical findings and influence engineering decisions. 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!

Technology

Zipline

Autonomy Droid Perception SWE - Offboard Systems

Senior

On-site

South San Francisco, CA

135,000 - 159,996 USD

🏢 Summary: Senior and Staff Perception Engineer roles focused on building and deploying production-grade computer vision and deep learning systems for autonomous drone delivery. The position involves developing cloud and onboard perception models, large-scale semantic and 3D mapping systems, and validation infrastructure for safety-critical logistics operations. Engineers will work on real-world autonomy challenges using aerial survey data, distributed training systems, and modern ML architectures. 🗂️ Requirements: 5+ years experience for Senior or 8+ years for Staff in deep learning-based perception systems, Experience with 3D geometry, semantic understanding, or remote sensing mapping, Strong knowledge of classical computer vision, Experience with CNN, transformer, and foundation model architectures, Experience building and deploying production ML systems, Experience with training, annotation, and evaluation pipelines, Ability to work with distributed training and data infrastructure, Experience in robotics or autonomy applications required for Staff, Roadmapping and technical leadership experience for Staff 📃 Skills: Python, ComputerVision, DeepLearning, CNN, Transformers, Segmentation, Geometry, Mapping, Calibration, Epipolar, StructureFromMotion, GaussianSplats, Robotics, Autonomy, GPU, Cloud, DistributedTraining, ML, Perception 🏢 Description: 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. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world's largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we've built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. 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. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people's lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. About You and The Role Zipline is operating the world's largest autonomous logistics network—delivering critical medical and commercial goods globally with high reliability, precision, and scale. As we expand into increasingly complex, safety-critical environments, the systems behind our autonomy stack must be robust, adaptable, and deeply integrated—especially at the intersection of perception and deployment. Our operational scale makes this a Physical AI opportunity like no other. We're hiring senior and staff perception engineers to join our Droid team, the group responsible for the autonomy that powers Zipline's backyard delivery experience. This team owns the full stack of onboard, offboard and cloud-side perception systems that inform, validate, and augment our onboard autonomy. From generating rich 3D and semantic priors from aerial survey data to learning customer preferences and terrain features at scale, your work will define how we enable Zipline aircraft to scale mission-critical deliveries across complex, real-world environments. This is not a purely research role—you'll be expected to move fast, ship production-grade systems, and find clever ways to apply state-of-the-art techniques to tangible, high-impact problems. What You'll Do - Own the design and implementation of computer vision ML models that run in the cloud or on an on-prem GPU cluster, helping support and scale on-device perception models. - Train and deploy large-scale models for semantic segmentation, feedforward 4D geometry, and learned preference modeling using aerial survey images, production deliveries and synthetic generated data. - Design and ship tools that predict deliverability, generate high-fidelity priors, and reduce operational friction of onboarding new customers in new environments. - Design evaluation and validation infrastructure to ensure models behave reliably in the field. - Ship new production features or models approximately every 6 weeks. - Senior engineers will lead architectural decisions, drive experimentation, and scale production-grade perception systems. - Staff engineers will roadmap the future of offboard models and lead challenging ML initiatives. What You'll Bring - At least 5+ years of experience (Senior) or 8+ years of experience (Staff) building and deploying deep learning-based perception systems. - Strong understanding of classical computer vision including camera calibration, epipolar geometry, and structure-from-motion. - Experience combining classical vision methods with modern ML approaches such as multi-view models and gaussian splats. - Hands-on experience training, fine-tuning, iterating on, and optimizing CNN, transformer, and foundation-style model architectures in production. - Engineering mindset focused on shipping scalable solutions. - Familiarity with training, data annotation, and evaluation pipelines. - Ability to work across data pipelines, training infrastructure, and distributed training systems. - Experience deploying models in robotics or autonomy applications is strongly preferred for Senior and required for Staff. - Staff candidates should demonstrate roadmap ownership and experience launching new ML initiatives. 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!