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Zipline is the world's largest autonomous drone delivery service, operating on four continents and completing millions of deliveries of blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. The company has safely flown over 140 million commercial autonomous miles and makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds.
The Ground Systems team designs and builds the infrastructure that enables Zipline's autonomous drones to operate at scale. This includes large steel towers that serve as docking stations, incorporating structural support, mechanisms, actuators, charging infrastructure, and data transmission systems.
As a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer, you will own the design of next-generation tower systems from concept through production. You will design structural components, mechanisms, and electronics integration, making critical decisions about product architecture while meeting high reliability targets and aggressive timelines. Your work will span from hand calculations and first-principles analysis through FEA, CAD, prototyping, and production ramp-up.
You will collaborate cross-functionally with electrical, software, civil, NPI, and supply chain teams to bring designs from concept to field deployment. You are expected to work with minimal direction, solve complex problems independently, and iterate rapidly based on analysis and test data. Your expertise in mechanical design, manufacturing processes (welding, sheetmetal, extrusion, CNC machining), and contract manufacturing will be critical to scaling production.
Required qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, proven track record owning complex subassemblies or full systems across at least 3 product programs (concept through production), strong fundamentals in load estimation, mechanics, structural hand calcs, FEA, and CAD. You must demonstrate expertise in mechanism design, electronics integration, manufacturing methods, and production ramp-up. Excellent communication skills—written, verbal, and visual—are essential, as is disciplined engineering process (part release, BOM maintenance, SOPs, timeline management).
