Zipline – Systems Engineer

Do you want to change the world? Zipline uses drones to deliver critical and lifesaving medicine to thousands of hospitals serving millions of people in multiple countries. Our mission is to provide every human on Earth with instant access to vital medical supplies. Join Zipline and help us make this a reality for billions of people.

ABOUT YOU AND THE ROLE

Do you enjoy tackling system-level reliability and pushing hardware to its limit? Do you love solving complex problems with little direction, a high degree of ownership, and the freedom to make it happen? At Zipline our work is intended for the field. Patients are counting on it today–there is no time for aiming low or for coming up short. If building systems to yield a 2-5x increase in reliability and in production volume in the next 3 months appeals to you, read on.

Zipline is at the forefront of a logistics revolution: We design, manufacture, and operate our own fleet of autonomous drones to make deliveries of vital medical supplies to people in need within minutes, 7 days a week. Today, we fly the equivalent of twice around the equator every week. In a few months, we’ll be doing that once a day, and by the end of 2020, once every hour.

Zipline was founded by engineers dedicated to making the world a better place. We are scaling around the world and we need someone to join our team who is excited to help increase our system reliability and build capacity dramatically in the coming year. Every day, your commitment and decisive actions will help save lives.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own quantitative reliability requirements from general product definitions down to specific failure modes. Lead specific design actions toward achieving these.
• Contribute to overall system architecture design using analytical reliability tradeoffs among early concepts.
• Own fault tolerance requirements for functions like actuation, bus/RF communications, power, and propulsion.
• Develop and maintain system reliability models and prediction.
• Facilitate risk analysis methods (FMEA/FMECA, HARA) toward prioritized engineering actions.
• Lead development and execution of DOE test series to down-select materials and processes.
• Develop lifetime usage and use-stress probability models.
• Apply physics-of-failure to the application of new and unique technologies.
• Meet with end customers at health clinics, flight operators, flight systems maintenance, and development stakeholders in order to internalize reliability effects and severities.
• Root cause analysis and solve difficult technical problems of a product saving lives daily around the world.
• Develop test plans and specifications to down select materials or processes, statistical strength models of hardware specific failures, and reliability demonstration.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• Serve as a trusted technical expert of high-reliability, safety-critical systems from concept phase to mass production.
• Ability to solve complex multidisciplinary problems on schedule with little supervision.
• Background in synthesizing elegant solutions from disparate industries like aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics, medical, or industrial.
• Plus: Experience designing systems that were resilient to harsh climatic environments, mechanical vibration, ESD, and/or high electrical noise. 

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities. 

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!