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 you and the role
Does the prospect of helping Zipline’s supply chain teams make faster, better decisions through AI-enabled workflows sound like the type of work that gets you out of bed in the morning? In this role, you will find high-impact opportunities to use AI across supplier management, planning, inventory, sourcing, manufacturing readiness, and day-to-day operations. You will turn those opportunities into practical tools and workflows, then help teams adopt them in their daily work. You will sit at the intersection of supply chain operations, data, systems, and AI enablement, helping Zipline build a faster, smarter, and more scalable operating model.
This is an in-person role based out of our HQ in South San Francisco requiring 5-15% travel to support supplier engagements, strategic initiatives, and key stakeholder meetings in Asia, North America, and other regions as needed.
What You’ll Do
In this highly visible and multifaceted role, you will lead AI enablement across Zipline’s supply chain function. You will turn operational pain points, fragmented data, and manual workflows into practical AI-assisted tools, automations, and decision systems that help teams move faster with better information. You will collaborate closely with Engineering, Data, IT, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Industrialization, Material Planning, Manufacturing Operations, Finance, and executive leadership to scale reliable, AI-enabled operating workflows across Zipline’s manufacturing footprint.
- Identify, prioritize, and own high-impact AI enablement opportunities across Supply Chain, including supplier collaboration, material planning, inventory health, sourcing workflows, production readiness, and executive operating rhythms.
- Design and deploy AI-assisted workflows, copilots, agents, automations, and decision-support tools that reduce manual work, improve decision quality, and make supply chain teams faster and more effective.
- Partner with Supply Chain, Engineering, Data, IT, Finance, Manufacturing Operations, and external vendors to translate operational pain points into AI-enabled product requirements, prototypes, adoption plans, and measurable business outcomes.
- Build the data foundations, process maps, and feedback loops needed for reliable AI workflows, including data quality checks, source-of-truth alignment, human-in-the-loop review, and clear ownership models.
- Use SQL, Python, BI tools, and AI/LLM platforms to prototype and operationalize tools that synthesize supplier, ERP, MRP, inventory, production, cost, and risk data into actionable recommendations.
- Lead change management for AI-enabled ways of working, including training users, documenting workflows, measuring adoption, gathering feedback, and iterating quickly with frontline and leadership stakeholders.
- Establish practical governance for AI use in supply chain operations, balancing speed with accuracy, security, auditability, and appropriate human oversight while continuing to develop executive-ready insights and recommendations.
What You’ll Bring
- You have experience driving operational improvement through data, systems, automation, AI tools, or technical program leadership in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
- You are fluent in SQL and comfortable with Python or similar scripting tools; you can work directly with messy operational data and turn it into usable products, workflows, or decision systems.
- You have hands-on experience using AI tools, LLMs, copilots, agents, workflow automation platforms, or data products to improve business processes.
- You can identify where AI will genuinely improve a workflow, where it will not, and what data, controls, adoption plan, and operating process are required for it to work reliably. You have a strong instinct for spotting poor AI output before it reaches users, and you care deeply about avoiding tools that look polished but produce confusing, unreliable, or low-trust results.
- You are strong at translating ambiguous business needs into clear requirements, prototypes, roadmaps, and measurable implementation plans.
- You have hands-on experience with supply chain, ERP, MRP, supplier management, manufacturing, or planning data models and can connect technical system behavior to operational outcomes.
- You thrive in ambiguous, high-stakes environments where the right answer requires strategic judgment, hands-on building, and strong cross-functional adoption leadership.
Major Bonuses
- Advanced degree in Supply Chain, Business Analytics, Data Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field, with experience applying AI, automation, or data products in high-tech, aerospace, robotics, or scaling manufacturing environments.
- Experience building or deploying AI agents, internal copilots, workflow automation, RAG-based tools, or LLM-enabled business applications with measurable operational impact.
- Familiarity with AI governance, model evaluation, human-in-the-loop workflows, data privacy, enterprise security, or reliability requirements in high-stakes operating environments.
- Proficiency with advanced Excel, ERP engines, data orchestration platforms, supplier collaboration tools, APIs, or low-code/no-code automation platforms.
- Strong product and change-management instincts, with a history of influencing without authority and driving adoption of new tools across operational teams.
What Else You Need to Know
This role will require travel 5-15% of the time to support strategic initiatives, supplier partnerships, and key meetings. The starting cash range for this role is $147,800 - $285,200. 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, 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.
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