Flight Test Operator, Half Moon Bay

About Zipline Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. About You and The Role Do you have excellent drone piloting skills, enjoy debugging drone hardware and software, and thrive on a collaborative, fast-paced team? If you’re committed to our mission of making access to life saving medical supplies a reality and welcome the challenge of flying newly developed drones, read on! As designs evolve, it’s critical that concepts are tested early and thoroughly to ensure our system architecture decisions are actually going to work in the field. On the System Test and Integration team, you will own flight operations of early stage aircraft, from custom prototypes through the bring-up of new production builds. This could involve manual R/C piloting, ground based checkouts for airworthiness, or leveraging Zipline’s automated flight systems. Each day brings new opportunities to test and learn about our technology, so you can help Zipline advance the systems that our customers’ lives depend on. Successful flight test operators for this team have strong aviation knowledge, top-notch maker skills and the interpersonal skills to coordinate activities across many teams. What You'll Do Independently own all aspects of flight operations, looping in engineering support as needed to make quick progress: Troubleshoot, maintain and upgrade electromechanical aircraft systems Validate aircraft ahead of flight through a series of ground-based tests Develop and maintain preflight checklists and other operational procedures Execute flight tests across a variety of aircraft Manage safety in a bustling test facility to mitigate risk from prototype flights Document your processes from inspections to flight tests Send out regular status updates to the team on challenges, failures and wins Align with engineering on the best course of action to achieve flight test goals on time Lean into the chaos, request support as needed, and dynamically prioritize projects as flight conditions change What You'll Bring Must have technical skills FAA Part 107 Certification Strong aeronautical decision making skills and familiarity with flight controller functions 2+ years experience manually piloting quadcopter drones, professionally or independently 2+ years experience with electromechanical build and troubleshooting projects (including hobbyist drone or maker projects) Great communication, documentation and organization skills Experience managing multiple competing proj