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 the Role

As a Hardware Reliability Engineer for aircraft structures, you will be responsible for the ability of aircraft critical subsystems to perform mission-critical functions over their lifetime, including: fuselage, wings, and propellers. Reliability Engineers at Zipline follow their hardware from design concept through end-of-life in real-world field operation. In addition, you will apply your expertise in particular failure mechanisms, tests, and failure analysis methods cross functionally. You will apply an engineering fundamentals background in Aerospace, Mechanical, and Materials to innovate through challenges in ultra-lightweight, long-life aircraft. For example, the long term environmental effects on carbon-fiber composites and structural polymers.

What You'll Do

• Lead and maintain cross-functional Design Failure Mode and Effects Analyses (DFMEA) for aircraft structure systems.
• Work between Responsible Design Engineers, Structure Analysis, and Manufacturing teams to meet the reliability goals of your subsystems.
• Characterize material to their specific application and environmental factors.
• Own lifetime load cases for flight structures, including fatigue and impact.
• Develop practical subsystem and component accelerated life tests.
• Create statistically significant validation and verification test plans for the demonstration of functional and reliability requirements.
• First to respond to failures discovered on tests or in the field. Lead cross-functional teams in root-cause-analysis activities.
• Perform material and failure analysis at our on-site facilities; source and manage this work at external labs as necessary.
• Design, set-up, and perform structure and material tests as needed.
• Calculate and maintain hardware failure rates for test campaigns and field deployment.

What You'll Bring

• An engineering background in mechanical engineering, materials engineering, or similar.
• Passion for and demonstrated history of solving complex engineering challenges.
• Experience with durability and damage tolerance analysis of metallic, composite, and plastic structures.
• Experience with characterization and failure analysis methods of metals, composites, and plastics. E.g. CT, DMA, DSC, fractography, FTIR, hardness, microscopy, SEM, TGA, etc.
• History of working with cross-functional teams to solve complex engineering problems.
• Prior experience bringing complex, safety critical systems to production.
• A passion for structural health monitoring, onboard failure detection, and life prediction.

What Else You Need to Know

The starting cash salary for this role is $170,000. 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; 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!