Electrical Supplier Industrialization Engineer - Long Range Platform
Zipline · South San Francisco, CA
- Level
- Engineer
- Team
- Reliability
- Travel
- 50%
- Experience asked
- 5+ years
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
An engineer-level reliability role at Zipline (aerospace & defense) in South San Francisco, CA. Proven, hands-on supplier industrialization or supplier quality experience with PCBAs, PCB fabrication/assembly, cable assemblies, and wire harnesses.
- They ask for
- 5+ years
- Tools it names
- Root cause, SPC, FMEA, PPAP, Control plans, Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ)
- Day to day
- about 50% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Reliability Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $115k–$165k.
Median of the low and high ends of 61 live postings that list pay, out of 130 reliability engineer openings in California, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
California plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 129 other live reliability postings in California.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- Typical (5+ years)
Typical $115k–$165k, from 61 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Root cause 71%
- ✓ FMEA 43%
- New product launch 42%
- Automation 32%
- ✓ Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 28%
- ✓ SPC 20%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for PPAP, Painting / coating, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with 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
We found 5 people at this company and state: 3 in this kind of role, 1 leaders, 1 recruiters. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See 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.
Write to Eric → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- The posting says about 50% 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.
This plant: Zipline in South San Francisco
25 other open roles at this site · 5 people we found in reliability roles at Zipline.
- Supplier Quality Engineer · Quality
- Mechanical Engineering Manager · Reliability · Manager
- Senior Manufacturing Engineer · Manufacturing · Senior
- Marketplace Strategy & Operations Manager · Production · Manager
- Engineering Technician, Powertrain · Manufacturing
- Production Technician · Production · Technician
Full description from ZiplineAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
About You and The Role
You will own technical industrialization and ongoing supplier performance for PCBAs, cable assemblies, wire harnesses, connectors, and related electrical components that go into Zipline’s Long Range Platform. This role sits at the intersection of Design Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain to move electrical hardware from prototype to reliable, repeatable production for an autonomy-focused, aviation-grade product. Your work directly affects flight readiness, field reliability, and program schedules — failures at supplier handoffs create flight delays, grounding risk, and customer-impacting outages.
What You'll Do
- ◆Act as the single technical owner for assigned electrical parts and supplier relationships (PCBAs, cables, harnesses, connectors) across prototype → qualification → volume production. Own technical decisions, risk acceptance, and supplier technical performance metrics.
- ◆Define and enforce part-specific qualification criteria, inspection plans, control plans, acceptance criteria, and manufacturing data packages required for production release and flight qualification. Approve technical evidence before production sign-off.
- ◆Drive supplier selection and capability assessments including on-site audits, capability gap remediation, process flow validation, and production-readiness reviews at supplier sites and at Zipline build/test sites.
- ◆Develop and validate manufacturing and test processes with suppliers: process routings, work instructions, AOI/ICT/functional test strategies, and inline/outgoing sampling schemes to meet targeted yield and defect-rate goals.
- ◆Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions for supplier defects using structured methods (8D, PFMEA, SPC). Own containment-to-permanent-fix lifecycle and verify supplier corrective actions at source.
- ◆Define and track measurable supplier performance metrics (ppm, yield, process capability Cp/Cpk, on-time delivery %) and customer-impact KPIs tied to flight readiness and program schedule. Escalate and drive cross-functional remediation when metrics exceed thresholds.
- ◆Partner daily with Design Engineering to improve manufacturability and testability (DFM/DFT), issue engineering changes, and close deviation reviews with traceable dispositioning.
- ◆Manage multiple concurrent supplier industrialization projects; maintain technical records, risk logs, decision points, and open-action cadence to meet program delivery milestones.
- ◆Travel routinely to supplier locations and Zipline sites to lead onboarding, qualification builds, failure investigations, and continuous improvement activities. Prepare and present technical status and risk assessments to program leads and stakeholders.
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
- •BS in Electrical, Manufacturing, or Mechanical Engineering or equivalent experience with 5+ years of experience in hands-on production environments.
- •Proven, hands-on supplier industrialization or supplier quality experience with PCBAs, PCB fabrication/assembly, cable assemblies, and wire harnesses. Must have driven supplier qualification and production release for flight- or mission-critical hardware or similarly reliability-sensitive systems.
- •Demonstrated track record owning supplier technical performance and delivering measurable improvements (example: reduced supplier defect ppm, improved Cp/Cpk, or shortened qualification lead time). Include concrete examples in application.
- •Deep practical knowledge of electrical assembly manufacturing and test: SMT through-wave, through-hole repair, conformal coating, cable termination/crimping/overmolding, AOI, ICT, functional test, and fixture design for volume production.
- •Familiarity with inspection and quality tools: FAI/PPAP, PFMEA, control plans, gauge R&R, process capability studies, SPC, and structured problem solving (8D, 5-Why). Ability to author and review manufacturing data packages and acceptance criteria.
- •Able to read and drive changes to schematics, PCB/PCBA fabrication & assembly drawings, BOMs, and supplier documentation. Altium experience is a plus but not mandatory.
- •Comfortable working in high-ambiguity, high-urgency environments where supplier fixes directly impact flight operations. Must be willing and able to travel to supplier and Zipline sites (~30–50% typical, configurable by program) and perform hands-on supplier engineerin