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 lead the Design Execution team responsible for turning site concepts into permit-ready and construction-ready design packages for Zipline sites. This person will lead a group of design managers who own site designs from initial concept layout through issue-for-permit and issue-for-construction deliverables.
This role is for someone who has spent meaningful time managing design delivery for physical infrastructure: site layouts, civil design, structural coordination, electrical interfaces, permit drawings, consultant coordination, jurisdictional comments, utility engagement, application and co-ordination, construction document quality, and design changes during construction. The right candidate likely has around 10 years of relevant experience and has managed small teams of direct reports for at least three to five years.
You should bring professional grounding in architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, or a related design discipline. Strong candidates may come from design consultancies, owner-side design management roles, EV charging, commercial solar, distributed infrastructure, retail/site rollout, industrial facilities, or other companies that put repeatable physical infrastructure into the field.
What you'll do
- Lead the Design Execution function responsible for delivering site-specific charging-site designs from concept layout through issue-for-permit and issue-for-construction sets.
- Grow, manage and develop a team of design managers who coordinate internal stakeholders, external consultants, engineering disciplines, permitting requirements, and construction feedback.
- Build a predictable design delivery process with clear gates, drawing expectations, review cycles, permit-submission readiness, IFC readiness, and construction-support expectations.
- Own design execution quality across many concurrent sites, making sure drawings are complete, coordinated, buildable, permit-ready, and aligned with Zipline standards.
- Partner with Design Concepts and Standardization so execution teams have strong templates, basis-of-design documents, design guides, checklists, and repeatable details.
- Coordinate closely with Construction, Service Operations, Project Engineering, Launch, Real Estate, Legal, Finance, and external consultants to keep design packages aligned with site constraints, schedule, budget, permitting strategy, and construction reality.
- Establish mechanisms to catch design issues early, including constructability reviews, discipline coordination reviews, jurisdictional-risk reviews, and lessons-learned loops from the field.
- Manage consultant performance, including scopes of work, deliverable quality, timelines, communication, revision control, and design accountability.
- Help define role boundaries between design managers, project engineers, consultants, construction managers, and standards engineers so execution work moves quickly without unclear ownership.
- Build the team, tools, and operating cadence needed to support higher site volume across more markets.
What you'll bring
- 5-10+ years of experience in design management, architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, infrastructure design, site development, or a related physical-infrastructure design role.
- At least three to five years of experience managing small teams of direct reports, ideally design managers, architects, engineers, or technical project leads.
- Professional background in architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, or a related discipline. Licensure is helpful but not required if the operating experience is strong.
- Experience managing permit and construction drawing sets for physical infrastructure, including issue-for-permit and issue-for-construction deliverables.
- Experience working with external design consultants and internal cross-functional teams in an owner-side, consultancy, EV charging, solar, retail rollout, industrial, logistics, or distributed-site environment.
- Strong judgment on drawing quality, constructability, permitting risk, discipline coordination, scope boundaries, and when a design is ready to move forward.
- Ability to build process without slowing execution: design checklists, review gates, drawing standards, consultant scorecards, templates, and escalation routines.
- Clear communication with engineers, architects, construction managers, permitting partners, finance, legal, and operations stakeholders.
- Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment where standards are evolving, volume is increasing, and the design system needs to get better with every site.
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!
Zipline South San Francisco, California, USA Office
South San Francisco, CA, United States
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