Operations Engineer

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.

• •Build capacity and capital-investment scenarios for labor, equipment, tooling, shifts, floor space, and future demand.
• •Identify current and future bottlenecks and implement improvements in throughput, utilization, cycle time, labor efficiency, and cost.
• •Lead time studies, define standard work and labor models, and balance station loading against takt time.
• •Own factory performance and production-system design, connecting individual processes into an efficient end-to-end system.
• •Improve factory layouts, workstations, operator movement, and material presentation.
• •Define WIP, buffer, queue, and rework strategies that protect output while reducing inventory and lead time.
• •Partner with Manufacturing, Production, Supply Chain, and Material Planning on line architecture, lineside availability, and replenishment.
• •Develop factory KPIs, decision tools, make-versus-buy analyses, and investment cases; carry improvements through implementation.

• •A bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Operations Research, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
• •3+ years in industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, operations engineering, production systems, or a comparable environment.
• •Experience with time studies, labor and capacity models, line balancing, takt time, standard work, factory layouts, and material flow.
• •A record of identifying manufacturing constraints and improving throughput, productivity, utilization, lead time, or cost.
• •Strong spreadsheet and analytical skills, including work with ERP, MES, labor-tracking, and production data.
• •Ability to build operational and financial models for capital investment, automation, make-versus-buy, and factory scaling.
• •A hands-on approach, clear communication, and ownership of improvements from ambiguous problem through implementation

• +5–7 years of relevant experience.
• +Experience scaling complex electromechanical products, expanding factories, or launching new production lines.
• +Familiarity with simulation, optimization, SQL, Python, BI tools, manufacturing dashboards, or ERP/MES platforms.
• +Experience with Lean manufacturing, Theory of Constraints, PFMEA, value-stream mapping, or automation business cases.

What Else You Need to Know

The starting cash range for this role is $104,000 - $170,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum