Head of Global Supplier Industrialization

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.

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

Zipline is scaling drone production and flight operations by more than 20× over the next three years while maintaining best-in-class safety and reliability. You will own the entire supplier industrialization and supplier development engineering functions — building the team, processes, tools, and culture that make Zipline’s massive scale‑up possible without compromising quality, delivery, or cost. This role reports to the VP of Supply Chain, and will have 10-15 direct reports.

• Full accountability for supplier readiness: every new program and every major ramp must pass through your organization’s technical gates before volume commitments are made.
• Build and lead a world‑class team of Supplier Quality Engineers (SQEs), Industrialization Engineers, and NPI/Development Engineers.
• Design and enforce Zipline’s global Supplier Industrialization Framework from first principles:
  • Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP)
  • Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) with Zipline‑specific submission requirements (FAI (“First Article Inspection”), PSW (“Part Submission Warrant”), dimensional reports, material certifications, process capability, etc.)
  • Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA) moderation and risk buy‑off methodology
  • Run‑at‑Rate and ramp validation protocols
  • Process capability roadmaps (Cpk targets, statistical process controls)
  • Supplier scorecard system (OTD (“On‑Time Delivery”), PPM (“Parts Per Million” defect rate), capacity utilization, cost‑reduction delivery, risk)
  • Digital interface collaboration with Software leadership to ensure issue tickets and RCCA are documented and routed back to suppliers
• Creation of robust, first‑principles based should‑cost modeling methodology. Build and maintain bottoms‑up, parametric should‑cost models for every critical commodity (carbon‑fiber aero structures, high‑power density Li‑ion battery packs, brushless propulsion motors, avionics/powertrain PCBAs, precision‑machined flight‑critical parts, ground systems hardware, etc). Your models will be the source of truth for commercial negotiation benchmarking, make‑vs‑buy decisions, and annual cost‑reduction targets.
• Lead technical deep dives with suppliers on Design for Manufacturability/Assembly (DFM/A), automation ROI, tooling investment, and value‑engineering initiatives driven directly from should‑cost models.
• Develop dynamic capacity modeling tools that forecast supplier output 12–36 months forward under multiple demand scenarios, including the rate‑improvement action‑tracking systems needed to ensure industrialization risks are understood and mitigated.
• Act as the final technical gatekeeper in Production Readiness Reviews (PRRs) and PPAP/FAI sign‑off.

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Aerospace, Manufacturing, or Electrical Engineering.
• 8‑15+ years in supplier quality, supplier development, or manufacturing/industrialization engineering in safety‑critical or regulated hardware.
• 8+ years directly managing and…