Electrical Engineering Manager - Ground Systems

Company: Zipline
Location: South San Francisco
Posted on: April 1, 2026

Job Description:

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 the Role The Ground Systems team at Zipline is in charge of all the infrastructures on the ground supporting our autonomous delivery drones with docking, battery charging, thermal management, ground communication and preflight checks. This role is central to enable our next generation of drone logistics, solving complex challenges in power distribution, power conversion, battery charging, high performance microprocessor, high-speed network communication and system-level integration. Zipline is seeking an electrical engineering leader to manage a high performing team of electrical hardware design for the Ground Systems team. This technical leader will guide and grow these teams as well as be able to own parts of the design directly as the team scales. You and your teams will be responsible for architecting and developing custom Printed Circuit Board Assemblies (PCBAs), integrated sensing and RF solutions, and complex industrial systems for our new and existing ground systems hardware and validating the solutions for volume scale. Our ground systems are flight and safety critical. They are installed worldwide, and Zipline will depend on this team to develop novel solutions that enable unprecedented scale and efficiency. Success will depend not only on technical innovation, but also on developing a deep understanding of the needs of our customers. What you’ll do Be the electrical engineering technical leader for ground systems design including low voltage electronics and PCBA development, power electronics and RF systems Build your teams by hiring and coaching world class electrical engineering design and test teams Drive architectural decisions and manage the requirements of the next-generation of Zipline’s ground system hardware to deliver safe, reliable, high volume and low cost products Design and validate to relevant North American and international safety and certification standards for scaled deployments Allocate resources within your team to the electrical engineering projects Create and manage milestones and deliverables with your team Maintain visibility across the hardware your team owns, and have the ability to deep dive into projects and challenges Liaise with other technical leaders both within and outside of the Ground Systems Hardware team (Mechanical Design, Embedded Systems, Validation & Test, Field Operations, Supply Chain, Manufacturing and more) Leverage your technical leadership experience in hardware design to establish a team culture that biases towards action and tests ideas to achieve radically simple designs Motivate your team with a clear vision and create ambitious plans for your team’s work while holding a high bar for technical quality Establish best practices, standards, and design and release review processes that enable both high speed development and rigorous execution What you’ll bring 8 years of demonstrated experience with electronics designs and system integration 2 year leading a technical engineering team, and direct hiring management experience finding great talent Experience working with products across various stages of development, from prototype to high volume production Ability to operate in ambiguous and fast paced environments with demonstrated experience in handling priorities and collaborating across a complex organization Demonstrated expertise with low voltage digital circuit design and/or power electronics design You’re hands-on with hardware; you know your way around tools like oscilloscopes and signal generators Why join Zipline? As an Electrical Engineering Manager at Zipline, you’ll be leading the development of the future of global autonomous logistics and delivery. You’ll lead and grow a team of empowered world class engineers with real accountability for real-world outcomes. This is a chance to make a global impact, design products for scale and improve the lives of millions through hardware that works every time. If you’re excited by owning tough problems end to end in an ambiguous new industry, you belong here. What Else You Need to Know The starting cash range for this role is $190,000 - $245,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more. Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies. We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

Keywords: Zipline, Sunnyvale , Electrical Engineering Manager - Ground Systems, Engineering , South San Francisco, California