Head of Systems Engineering
Zipline · South San Francisco, CA
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Manufacturing
- Base pay
- $225k–$275k
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level manufacturing role at Zipline (aerospace & defense) in South San Francisco, CA.
- Tools it names
- Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ)
- Base pay
- $225k–$275k
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Manufacturing Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $114k–$167k. This one lists $225k–$275k.
Median of the low and high ends of 117 live postings that list pay, out of 320 manufacturing 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 319 other live manufacturing postings in California.
- Base pay
- About 87% above similar roles
- Experience asked
- Not stated
Typical $111k–$157k, from 105 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Tooling 53%
- New product launch 51%
- Root cause 40%
- Automation 35%
- Machining 29%
- CATIA / NX 29%
✓ = 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 Manufacturing team at Zipline
We found 3 people at this company and state: 2 in this kind of role, 1 leaders. 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 Scott → (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?
- Is the work mostly new product launches or sustaining existing lines?
- How much time do you spend on the floor versus at a desk?
- 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 · 3 people we found in manufacturing 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 lead the systems engineering team responsible for defining the product capabilities roadmap, decomposing those capabilities into concrete architectures engineering teams can deliver on, and system validation & verification of new capabilities across our current platforms as well as new and novel autonomous aircraft concepts.
In 2026, we will scale Platform 2 deliveries per day by 10x while we ramp range by 5x - so, we’ll fly 50x further every day than we do today. We’ll do that while ramping into significantly more complex airspaces and environmental conditions across 5 metros in the US. Then, in 2027 we’ll make a similar 10x+ jump while expanding across the globe.
This is a key leadership position at Zipline to find the right path for what we need to build to enable safely scaling into complex environments, the right architecture to achieve safety and cost goals over the coming hardware and software revisions, and balancing competing objectives as we scale such as range, acoustics, delivery throughput, and cost.
What You'll Do
- ◆Scope: Product level requirements, architecture and decomposition, verification plans, operational performance monitoring of the key attributes and functions of the product such as the following:
- ◆Network Optimization & Capacity; Aircraft Autonomy; Flight Performance; Operational Design Domain / Operating Envelope; Flight Reliability and Fault Management
- ◆What you’ll do across these areas
- ◆Serve as a trusted technical expert of high-reliability, safety-critical autonomous systems owning system level architecture, requirements, metrics, and test coverage to ensure we ship the right product capabilities, safely.
- ◆Define interfaces and drive cross disciplinary discussions to align on the right architectures to meet our goals
- ◆Develop frameworks and facilitate trade studies to optimize for performance, safety, and cost.
- ◆Create and maintain systems models and diagrams
- ◆Set the bar for hardware and software release standards and test
requirements
- ✓Partner with safety engineering and regulatory team to prove flight worthiness to regulators
- ✓Leadership
- ✓Grow and mentor a world-class Systems Engineering team as well as mentor those in adjacent teams
- ✓Drive multi-year technical roadmap across the product
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; overtime pay; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.
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
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
- •Demonstrated leadership delivering complex technical solutions amid ambiguity, competing priorities, and a broad cross-functional organization.
- •A track record of shipping high-reliability, safety-critical autonomous systems into real-world operation.
- •Deep systems-engineering experience with product requirements, architecture, interface definition, system decomposition, verification planning, and validation.
- •Technical judgment in safety-critical autonomy, including fail-safe, fault-tolerant, and fail-operative approaches that sustain safe operation through faults.
- •Experience making principled tradeoffs among safety, performance, cost, and operational constraints using models, metrics, and test evidence.
- •Ability to develop technical leaders and communicate clear system decisions across engineering, safety, regulatory, and operational partners.
What Else You Need To Know
The starting cash range for this role is $225,000-275,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum