Senior Staff / Manager - Ground Systems Project Engineering

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 this role Zipline is looking for a Sr Staff Engineer or Engineering Manager to build and lead a generalist engineering function for Ground Systems Deployments. Project Engineering will attack a broad set of practical technical problems across mechanical, electrical, civil, structural, site infrastructure, construction, serviceability, deployment execution, new product introduction, process improvement, and field feedback. This role is for someone who is technically strong, highly tactical, and comfortable solving problems that do not fit neatly inside one discipline. You will lead engineers who can move from a field issue to a design improvement, from a construction blocker to a technical trade study, from a new hardware deployment to a launch-readiness plan, and from a recurring site problem to a better upstream standard or product requirement. The function will also own the coordination needed when new hardware products are deployed on-site. Project Engineering will work across Engineering, Product, Operations, Construction, Service Operations, Launch, Supply Chain, and external partners to make sure new site hardware can be designed, built, installed, commissioned, operated, maintained, and improved successfully. The right candidate combines technical innovation with process development and continuous improvement. This function should solve urgent project problems effectively while also making the system better over time: fewer repeated issues, clearer technical ownership, stronger design inputs, better field feedback loops, better NPI readiness, and practical engineering tools that improve speed and quality. What you'll do Build and lead the Ground Systems Project Engineering function as a tactical, multidisciplinary engineering team supporting site design, construction, deployment, launch, service operations, NPI, process improvement, and field feedback. Own technical problem-solving for cross-disciplinary issues that span mechanical, electrical, civil, structural, site infrastructure, constructability, serviceability, installation, commissioning, operations, and field execution. Own the site-facing new product introduction process for new ground-system hardware, coordinating across Engineering, Product, Operations, Construction, Service Operations, Launch, Supply Chain, and external partners. Ensure new hardware products are ready for real site deployment, i