Maintenance Operations Engineering Technician
Zipline · Amarillo, TX
- Level
- Engineer
- Team
- Reliability
- Travel
- 20%
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
An engineer-level reliability role at Zipline (aerospace & defense) in Amarillo, TX. Texas, you will keep prototype flight vehicles, ground infrastructure, and test equipment safe, configured, and ready for engineering development and field operations.
- Tools it names
- Root cause, Tooling
- Day to day
- some off-shift / weekend coverage · about 20% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Reliability Engineer roles in Texas: typical posted base $124k–$135k.
Median of the low and high ends of 9 live postings that list pay, out of 55 reliability engineer openings in Texas, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Texas plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 54 other live reliability postings in Texas.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- Not stated
Typical $124k–$135k, from 8 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 4+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Root cause 47%
- SAP 25%
- Automation 25%
- Team leadership 24%
- FMEA 22%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Reliability team at Zipline
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- How does off-shift and weekend coverage work?
- The posting says about 20% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
Full description from ZiplineAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
About You and The Role
Zipline builds autonomous delivery systems that move essential goods. As a Maintenance Operations Engineering Technician in Amarillo, Texas, you will keep prototype flight vehicles, ground infrastructure, and test equipment safe, configured, and ready for engineering development and field operations.
You will own hands-on maintenance and test execution: replacing components, preparing vehicles and test setups, running endurance campaigns, and isolating first-order issues. Your work enables safe test execution, reliable data capture, accurate configuration records, and evidence engineers use for design and vehicle-readiness decisions.
This role is based on site in Amarillo, Texas, with flexibility required to support testing operations at other locations across the United States.
What You'll Do
- ◆Maintain prototype aircraft, ground infrastructure, and test equipment to keep approved test campaigns executable and vehicles available for engineering work.
- ◆Replace vehicle components, perform checkouts, and maintain complete maintenance documentation and configuration records.
- ◆Execute semi-automated vehicle checkouts, reliability campaigns, and endurance tests using documented procedures and repeatable setups.
- ◆Prepare test articles, equipment, instrumentation, and data-acquisition systems so test specifications can be executed as written.
- ◆Verify completed maintenance and test setups meet documented configuration, safety-check, instrumentation, and data-capture
requirements
before test execution.
- ✓Independently isolate and document first-order test-system or test-article faults; surface deviations and escalate root-cause resolution to engineers.
- ✓Produce test reports that connect observations and data to reliability improvements, design iterations, and vehicle-readiness decisions.
- ✓Travel to support testing, maintenance, and operational needs at other Zipline locations across the United States.
- ✓Eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
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.
What You'll Bring
- •Experience operating common machine-shop equipment and building mechanical assemblies, fixtures, jigs, or test hardware.
- •Hands-on experience with electrical and electronic assemblies across different power levels and component sizes.
- •Experience setting up, instrumenting, executing, and documenting hardware or hardware/software tests alongside engineers.
- •Ability to independently troubleshoot test issues to a first-order diagnosis and communicate clear evidence for engineering follow-up.
- •Ability to interpret electrical specifications, mechanical drawings, test procedures, diagrams, and incomplete work instructions.
- •Discipline in organizing test data, maintaining configuration records, and communicating findings clearly in writing and verbally.
- •Ability to work rotating shifts, including nights and weekends, on site in Amarillo, Texas.
- •Ability to travel approximately 20% of the time, including trips of up to two weeks, to support testing operations across the United States.
What Else You Need to Know
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!
Voluntary Self-Identification
For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter