Head of Aero

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 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. About You and The Role It’s hard to fly without a foundational understanding of how to manipulate the air around you; as Head of Aerodynamics you’ll be responsible for the team that does exactly that. We do not just analyze other peoples’ designs - we are a central force behind Zipline’s autonomous aircraft hardware and software development, working on everything from clean-sheet vehicle conceptual layout through to the detailed geometry design of all wetted surfaces using a variety of model-based and physical test approaches. In addition to your proven record of building and managing small teams, you’ll have world-class experience in solving vehicle aerodynamic design challenges, with an unrivaled grasp of the fundamentals of applied aerodynamics, aircraft design and aeroacoustics. What You'll Do You will be responsible for leading and developing the team that counts the following among its core deliverables: Conceptual design for new vehicles, as well as significant hardware revisions of existing platforms Building high quality aerodynamics plant models that are carefully validated through ground- and flight-based testing Advanced surfacing of all wetted surfaces (both external and internal), which are used by mechanical designers