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Product Design Engineer - Structures & Mechanisms

Zipline

Zipline

Product, Design
South San Francisco, CA, USA
Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2023

About Zipline

Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart, to enabling healthcare providers to bring care directly to U.S. homes, we are transforming the way things move for businesses, governments and consumers. The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it. Through our technology that includes robotics and autonomy, we are decarbonizing delivery, decreasing road congestion, and reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access to billions of people and building a more resilient global supply chain.
Join Zipline and help us to make good on our promise to build an equitable and more resilient global supply chain for billions of people.

About You and The Role

Do you relentlessly optimize for speed and scale in product design and get excited about owning development from concept to final integration for novel ground-breaking products at the forefront of mass production? Do you enjoy staying up the extra hours on the night shift to bring up tools in Asia to hit production milestones? At Zipline our work is intended for the field. Patients are counting on it today--there is no time for aiming low or for coming up short. If leveraging your talent to drive creating elegantly engineered solutions excites you read on!

Zipline believes access to medical care should not depend on your GPS coordinates. We are at the forefront of a logistics revolution, using autonomous aircraft to deliver just-in-time, lifesaving medical supplies on 3 continents around the world right now, 7 days a week. Are you interested in building a system that 200 million people will depend on with their lives?

What You'll Do

As a Senior Product Design Engineer, you are a technical leader working on critical systems for our flagship products supporting air vehicle systems which may include autonomy sensing hardware, vehicle mechanisms, propulsion systems, and structures. This is not your first rodeo scaling high volume products. You are a speed user and optimizer for iterating concepts in 3D/2D CAD and have a proven track record and core competencies that enable high volume manufacturing at scale with 99.9% yield. You achieve this through your knowledge of design for manufacturing, common tooling or process design constraints, quick concept prototyping, testing and down-selection. You will work closely with our electrical engineering team to optimize the integration of custom PCBAs, harnessing, and flex circuits. You will also work daily with our cross-functional partners in Supply Chain, Quality, NPI and Manufacturing to scale product build volumes internally and externally with our vendors. You will be viewed by the company as a walking encyclopedia of knowledge for reliable mechanism design and mechanical design best practices.

What You'll Bring

  • 5+ years full-time product development experience with proven track record shipping hardware through 3-4 product life cycles - concept, prototype, validation, production
  • Demonstrated CAD expertise in master and direct modelling where instantiating an idea, incorporating DfX feedback in 3D/2D, and managing a 50+ part BOM is 2nd nature
  • You know how to prototype quickly and effectively, using these iterative cycles to down-select multiple concepts down to one in 1-2 weeks
  • You apply GD&T to complex assemblies and understand how to design effective datum schemes at the onset for part assemblies for optimum cost/yield
  • Experienced designing for high volume manufacturing processes with detailed understanding of tool features - plastic injection molding, sheet metal, castings, and MIM
  • Demonstrated experience utilizing FEA for validating structural part designs prior to tooling kick off
  • Passion for elegant mechanical design at every level of detail - every part serves a purpose every gram of mass is accounted for
  • Excellent communication - written, verbal, and visual. You know how to tailor to your audience with the right level of technical depth
  • Prior experience working with Asia-based suppliers in high-volume mass production; Willing to travel as needed to bring up suppliers
  • Must be willing to relocate to Bay Area working regularly out of Zipline HQ

Nice To Have

  • Tool design expertise - Your parts never have unwanted sink marks, knit lines, flash, or warpage because you know how to engineer it out before the tool is cut
  • FEA expert - You know how to analyze non-linear, large displacement static loads and dynamic transient and random loads. You know how to analyze thermal load cases
  • Working knowledge using electrical components & microcontrollers (ex. raspberry pi)
  • Prior experience designing to aerospace or automotive level validation standards

What Else You Need To Know

The starting cash range for this role is $130,000 - $165,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum 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.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies.
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!