Senior Electrical Engineer - Powertrain

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.

The Senior Electrical Engineer will develop power electronics focused avionics for our next generation aircraft. We are looking for an engineer with a strong foundation in board level design and an excellent grasp of electronics development, processes, and tools. 

As a Senior Electrical Engineer on the Powertrain team, you will be responsible for architecting and designing electronics including motor inverters, power distribution, battery management, fail-safe / safety, and communication and networking systems. These components are at the core of a new unmanned aerial system that will enable Zipline’s impact to expand from 100,000 deliveries a year to 100 million across the globe. In addition, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with world class engineers across all disciplines and experience levels. Zipline values personal development highly and encourages an environment of continuous learning and mentorship. 

The Powertrain team encounters many challenges when designing robust systems to provide life-saving service in some of the harshest environments on Earth. At the start of any project, our team plays a vital role in system architecture, designing for performance, reliability, and fault tolerance, while balancing mass and cost. Included in this is the design of an FAA-approved safety system to ensure the safety of employees, customers, and bystanders. Our sophisticated flight systems also require us to build custom solutions with high performance embedded computing and high speed serial buses. To achieve Zipline’s goal of serving anyone anywhere, all aspects of a design must be successful in a wide range of real-world environments. This means that our team is responsible for designs that are robust to broad ambient temperature ranges, can survive challenging waterproofing/ingress constraints, and maintain immunity to RF and ESD threats. These are just some of the many challenges that make us excited to go to work everyday.

• Engineer avionics for volume production through a full design cycle including requirements, prototype, schematic capture, layout, and validation.
• Shape the architecture of Zipline’s next generation product, making impactful design decisions daily, while working with a high level of independence. 
• Lead trade studies, understand competing design priorities, and provide direction and clarity for burning down risk.
• Proactively seek out opportunities for improvement in system, vehicle, and component level design.
• Collaborate cross-functionally in all stages of development, including:
• Architecture: fault tolerance, power, mass, thermals
• Detailed Design: schematic capture, PCB layout, system integration, validation
• Production: quality, failure analysis, manufacturing, cost
• Deployment: troubleshoot field issues, develop rapid mitigations, roll learnings into future design revisions

• A degree in Electrical Engineering, Embedded Hardware Engineering or equivalent practical experience.
• Minimum 5 years of design experience including: circuit analysis, schematic capture, PCB layout, packaging, and integration.
• Past success developing electronics for critical systems in fields such as aerospace, transportation, or medical devices.
• Experience with at least some of these desired:
• Hard-switching power converters
• Resonant power converters
• Motor drives
• Voltage, current, and temperature sensing analog front ends
• Simple digital logic
• Basic embedded communications busses (e.g. SPI, I2C, UART, CAN)
• Higher speed communications (e.g. Ethernet, LVDS)
• Enthusiasm for working in a fast-paced,  collaborative, cross-functional environment.
• Clear communication skills and the ability to explain technical challenges to both fellow engineers and non-engineers alike.
• Must be eligible to work in the US.
• Must be able to work at Zipline’s South San Francisco office.
• Preferred: experience with practical aspects of carrying a design into mass production. This includes optimizing for cost, manufacturability, and yields.

The starting cash range for this role is $160,000 - $225,000. 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!