Engineering Technician, Powertrain

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 You and The Role

As an Engineering Technician on the Powertrain team, you will build, operate, troubleshoot, and improve the hardware and test systems used to develop, validate, and support our aircraft’s electrical power and propulsion systems.

The team owns the systems that store, distribute, convert, and use electrical energy throughout the aircraft—including battery cells and packs, power-distribution hardware, busbars, connectors, power electronics, electric motors, motor controllers, propellers, and integrated propulsion assemblies.

You will partner closely with design and test engineers to create the fixtures, instrumentation, automated test systems, and processes that enable development, qualification, manufacturing validation, and field support. Your scope will grow with experience, from building and executing individual tests to owning complex test systems and helping define team-wide validation practices.

What You'll Do

Prototype Development

• Build, assemble, modify, and maintain engineering prototypes for batteries, power electronics, electric motors, motor controllers, propellers, and integrated propulsion systems.

• Assemble and commission custom test equipment, fixtures, instrumentation, and laboratory infrastructure using engineering drawings, electrical schematics, and work instructions.

• Perform wiring, soldering, crimping, cable fabrication, connector assembly, and mechanical assembly using high-quality engineering and manufacturing practices.

• Fabricate and modify test fixtures, mechanical components, wiring harnesses, and laboratory tooling using standard shop equipment and rapid prototyping methods.

• Support engineering changes, prototype iterations, and hardware bring-up throughout the product development lifecycle.

Validation & Laboratory Operations

• Set up, operate, and maintain laboratory equipment including power supplies, battery cyclers, dynamometers, electronic loads, oscilloscopes, DAQ systems, environmental chambers, vibration equipment, and thermal instrumentation.

• Execute engineering validation activities including characterization, environmental, vibration, thermal, fatigue, abuse, electrical performance, and reliability testing.

• Collect, document, and organize engineering data while ensuring repeatability, traceability, and measurement quality.

• Maintain laboratory organization, calibration records, tooling, consumables, and equipment to ensure safe, reliable, and efficient engineering operations.

• Support commissioning of new laboratory equipment and validation infrastructure.

Troubleshooting & Continuous Improvement

• Troubleshoot prototype hardware, laboratory equipment, and test systems, partnering with engineers to identify root causes and implement corrective actions.

• Identify and implement improvements to laboratory workflows, assembly methods, fixture designs, tooling, and test efficiency.

• Develop and improve work instructions, assembly documentation, laboratory procedures, and standard operating practices.

• Partner closely with Mechanical, Electrical, Test, Manufacturing, Reliability, and Systems Engineers to rapidly iterate hardware and improve engineering execution.

• As experience grows, independently own prototype builds, laboratory equipment, validation activities, and portions of engineering programs while mentoring teammates and driving improvement

Prepare for the interview

Nothing collected for this employer yet. The Blind 75 is what technical screens draw from; practise it here, with a coach, in Java or Python.

More at Zipline

• Senior Loads and Dynamics Engineer - Aeroelastics and Rotordynamics · South San Francisco, California, USA
• Sr. Manager, Software Engineering – Marketplace · South San Francisco, California, USA
• Senior Loads and Dynamics Engineer - Aeroelastics and Rotordynamics · South San Francisco, California, USA
• Droid Autonomy Intern (Summer 2027) · South San Francisco, California, USA
• Senior Embedded Software Engineer - Avionics SW · South San Francisco, California, USA
• Avionics Technician · South San Francisco, California, USA
• Flight Test Electrical Lead · Esparto, California, USA
• Senior Embedded Software Validation Engineer - Avionics SW · South San Francisco, California, USA