Operations Governance & Quality Manager

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.

About The Role

Zipline’s operations are scaling rapidly across Africa, with increasing complexity across countries, partners, and service models. We are seeking an Operations Governance & Quality Manager to build and enforce the systems that ensure our operations remain consistent, high-quality, and scalable as we grow.
This role owns the governance of Zipline’s operating model across the region, including SOPs, and operational standards, as well as the definition of operational roles, required skill sets, and certification frameworks needed to execute them effectively. It also owns structured change management for operational processes, ensuring updates to workflows, systems, and standards are effectively deployed, adopted, and sustained across the network. Improvements are reinforced over time through strong governance, audits, and adoption mechanisms.
This is a highly cross-functional role, working closely with Operations, Process Improvement, Data, Compliance, and Academy teams to ensure service delivery is reliable, scalable, and aligned with global standards—while establishing fast feedback loops to continuously refine processes, capability building, and rollout approaches.
Success in this role requires strong attention to detail, structured thinking, and the ability to enforce standards while remaining pragmatic in complex, real-world environments.

What You'll Do

Governance & Operating Model Standards

• Establish governance frameworks that ensure consistent execution of operations at scale, enabling rapid onboarding of new locations without compromising quality or consistency.

• Define, document, and maintain SOPs, policies, and operational standards across countries and Zipline distribution centers.

• Manage change control processes for updates to workflows, systems, and standards.

• Build and continuously refine a scalable governance playbook to support repeatable, high-quality launches across new markets.

Quality Assurance & Compliance

• Design and implement standardized quality assurance programs, including audits, scorecards, and performance checks.

• Design and deploy tools, metrics, and reporting mechanisms that empower local teams to own adherence to operational and quality standards across the network.

• Identify gaps in adherence and partner with Process Improvement and local teams to drive corrective actions.

• Monitor and track resolution of audit findings and recurring issues.

Adoption, Training & Capability Enablement

• Ensure new processes and improvements are clearly documented and embedded into SOPs.

• Define and maintain role expectations, skill requirements, and training frameworks across operations, partnering with the Academy to keep certifications current and aligned with evolving standards.

• Partner with the Academy to continuously develop and improve training content, ensuring alignment with operational standards and real-world execution needs.

• Lead structured rollouts of new processes and best practices, ensuring strong adoption and minimizing operational drift or fragmentation across countries.

• Build mechanisms to ensure long-term sustainability of operational improvements, including reinforcement through training, certification, and audits.

What You'll Bring

• 6+ years of experience in operations governance, quality, service assurance, or similar roles.

• Strong experience defining SOPs, policies, and operational standards.

• Proven experience designing and implementing quality assurance and audit frameworks.

• High attention to detail and strong organizational skills.

• Strong analytical mindset and ability to work with performance data.

• Experience working in multi-country or complex operational environments.

• Ability to influence and enforce standards across teams without direct authority.

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

• Pragmatic, structured, and highly accountable, with a focus on consistency and execution.

• Mission-driven, adaptable, and energized by solving complex operational challenges.

• Certifications in Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, or ISO standards are a plus.

Other Information

This role is based in-country with significant travel, and requires regular engagement with operational sites and field teams.

What Else You Need To Know

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

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!