Mechanical Engineer - New Products Team (Senior-Staff), Zipline , CA, US

Mechanical Engineer - New Products Team (Senior-Staff Level)

Onsite Position in South San Francisco, CA | Full-Time

About Zipline

Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart, to enabling healthcare providers to bring care directly to U.S. homes, we are transforming the way things move for businesses, governments and consumers. The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it. Through our technology that includes robotics and autonomy, we are decarbonizing delivery, decreasing road congestion, and reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access to billions of people and building a more resilient global supply chain.

About the Team and the Role

Do you thrive on impossible challenges and thrive in environments where speed and creativity matter most? The New Products team at Zipline is our skunkworks, the place where the boldest ideas are transformed into real systems that change the future. We are looking for a phenomenal Mechanical Engineer to join this group and help design, prototype, and launch the next generation of Zipline products.

This is a small, highly selective team of visionary engineers and builders who operate at the cutting edge of hardware and software, reporting directly to our CTO. When we are not creating the company’s next breakthrough platform, we are dropped into the hardest problems anywhere in the organization and expected to deliver solutions that shift what is possible. Alumni of this team go on to lead Zipline’s most critical efforts and drive the technologies that define our industry. Very little is known publicly about this team, but here is a rare glimpse: https://spectrum.ieee.org/delivery-drone-zipline-design

What You'll Do

As a Mechanical Engineer on the New Products team, you’ll use your engineering fundamentals and creative instincts to design and build the next generation of Zipline’s hardware. Your work will span across invention, prototyping, analysis, and validation, and no two weeks will look the same. On any given day, you might be:

• Embedding in hospital labs to uncover unmet needs and new opportunities
• Sketching and building flying machines that others would never dare to attempt
• Prototyping in everything from cardboard to polished hardware headed into customer hands
• Collaborating directly with partners to make our technology fit seamlessly into their world
• Tackling knotty design and analysis challenges on mission-critical mechanisms and structures
• Pushing prototypes through lab and flight testing to rapidly build reliability and confidence

You’ll own the design of major subsystems or even entire systems, covering structural components, mechanisms, and electronics integration. You’ll make architecture-level decisions, create designs that can scale, and rapidly iterate based on real test data. You’ll collaborate closely with electrical, software, civil, NPI, and supply chain teams to turn your designs into products deployed in the field. Hand calcs, quick builds, and fast iteration will guide your process, and autonomy will be your default.

What You'll Bring

You’re an engineer who loves to move fast, solve hard problems, and build things that have never existed before. You balance rigor with creativity and can zoom effortlessly between rough sketches, cardboard prototypes, and system-level CAD. You thrive in ambiguity, you own your work end-to-end, and you know how to deliver designs that scale.

• We’re looking for someone who brings:
• A foundation in mechanical engineering strong enough to own significant subsystems or entire systems, spanning structures, mechanisms, and electronics integration
• A proven history of shipping, taking complex designs through concept, prototyping, validation, and production
• The ability to move seamlessly between rough prototyping and detailed system-level CAD (20–40 parts at once)
• Comfort with a wide range of manufacturing methods including welding, sheet metal, extrusion, CNC machining, injection molding, and more
• Experience working closely with suppliers and contract manufacturers to translate designs into scalable production
• Fluency in communicating ideas clearly, whether through quick sketches, sharp technical writing, or strategic presentations tailored to your audience
• 7+ years of professional mechanical engineering experience and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering
• Willingness to relocate to the Bay Area and occasional travel (<10%) to customers and suppliers

Nice to Have

• NX as your primary CAD tool
• Experience designing for safety-critical applications, including applying proper factors of safety and joint calculations
• Hands-on prototyping skills, you enjoy building just as much as designing

What Else You Need To Know 

The starting cash salary range for this role is $170,000 - $225,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.