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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.
You will join Zipline's Systems Modeling Team as a Senior Systems Modeling Engineer focused on electric propulsion. This is a technical leadership role where you will own and advance the company's electric propulsion modeling capability across motors, inverters, gearboxes, and propellers. You will define the technical roadmap and make architecture, sizing, and design decisions across current and future aircraft programs.
Key responsibilities include:
- Owning the electric-propulsion modeling roadmap, framework, validation standards, and deployment across aircraft programs
- Leading trade studies that inform propulsion architecture, sizing, operating limits, thermal management, control strategies, and performance optimization
- Developing and validating physics-based models of electric propulsion systems at multiple fidelity levels, supporting aircraft simulation, hardware design, controls development, and fleet operations
- Designing and leading characterization campaigns for parameter identification and model validation, including test requirements, instrumentation, and procedures for dynamometer, thrust stand, wind tunnel, and thermal testing
- Building clean, modular, object-oriented modeling frameworks and engineering tools that are maintainable, reusable, and scalable
- Continuously improving model fidelity by comparing predictions against laboratory testing and production flight data
- Partnering with electrical, mechanical, thermal, controls, flight test, manufacturing, and fleet operations teams
You will connect propulsion performance, efficiency, thermal limits, acoustics, and reliability to system-level outcomes including aircraft range, payload capability, energy consumption, operational throughput, and cost per delivery.
Required qualifications:
- 8+ years of industry experience developing and validating physics-based models for electric powertrains, aerospace systems, electric vehicles, robotics, or complex electro-mechanical systems
- Strong heat-transfer fundamentals and experience building, parameterizing, and validating lumped-parameter thermal networks for electric machines or power electronics
- Track record of using quantitative analysis and modeling to drive engineering decisions, including design trade studies, operating limits, performance optimization, or system architecture decisions
- Demonstrated ability to design experimental characterization campaigns for parameter identification and model validation
- Proficiency in MATLAB, Python, Julia, Rust, or similar languages, with experience developing clean, modular, object-oriented engineering code
- Solid foundation in numerical methods, optimization, controls, and engineering model validation
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills
