Mechanical Design Engineer; Teams & Levels

Mechanical Design Engineer (All Teams & Levels)

South San Francisco | Avionics, Structures & Mechanisms, Powertrain & Battery, & Ground Systems | Full-Time

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.

Join Zipline and help us make good on our promise to build an equitable and more resilient global supply chain for billions of people.

This posting represents multiple Mechanical Design Engineering opportunities across our Engineering organization. We’re hiring across several teams (Avionics, Structures & Mechanisms, Powertrain & Battery, Ground Systems, and more) and across multiple seniority levels. Candidates who apply will be considered for all open roles that align with their background. During your first conversation, we will work with you to identify the best team and level match, based on your experience and interests.

Does working on large integrated electro‑mechanical systems from conception through fully scaled production and world‑wide deployment excite you?

At Zipline, our work is intended for the field. Patients are counting on it today and there is no time for aiming low or coming up short. If leveraging your talent to drive creating elegantly engineered solutions excites you, read on.

We’re looking for driven, proactive Mechanical Design Engineers to join various hardware teams across the organization. Mechanical Design engineers are responsible for coming up with novel designs that not only meet their intended function, but are also robust enough to handle the severe environments our aircraft are exposed to on an everyday basis. This person will be the complete owner for their hardware, hands‑on in moving projects forward through each phase of the product design process (Design, Build, Test, Repeat, Scale) to produce high‑impact products and manage projects on short timelines.

Additionally, design engineers are responsible for overseeing their designs into production, ensuring designs meet their design requirements, are manufacturable, inspectable, and can be built  Mechanical Engineers know their hardware inside and out and work seamlessly with Software, Integration, Production, Suppliers, and Test to make sure their hardware is functioning effectively as a part of the whole system.

• 1–12+ years of experience designing electromechanical and structural assemblies
• Proven track record of complex subassemblies or full systems over at least two product programs
• Demonstrated CAD fluency for system‑level ownership (3D/2D of 20–30 parts simultaneously)
• Experience working with suppliers and seeking DFM feedback
• Experience working on structural components and mechanisms, identifying worst‑case loads, creating quick test setups
• Demonstrated core competencies: GD&T, FEA (multi‑body structural and thermal), design for assembly and field ops
• Prototyping experience and quick iterations on owned projects
• Ability to bound problems with hand calcs (beam, buckling, bolted joints, etc.)
• Knowledge of appropriate safety margins for human safety critical applications
• Excellent written, verbal, and visual communication skills

• Experience with…