Senior Power Electronics Engineer - Platform 1 (P1)

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. Using 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

Are you eager to apply your technical skills to solve real-world problems and drive meaningful change? Do you thrive in environments where you're given ownership, creative freedom, and complex challenges to tackle? If so, join the engineering team at Zipline—where your work directly impacts lives every day.

Zipline’s long-range drone platform began operations in Rwanda in 2016. With a fixed-wing design capable of flying over 200 km on a single charge, our drones enable fast, reliable delivery of critical medical supplies to remote communities. From helping new mothers in Rwanda to saving snake bite victims in Ghana, Zipline’s technology has already served millions across the African continent—delivering thousands of life-saving products daily.

As a Senior Power Electronics Engineer on Zipline’s long-range drone program, you will lead the development, improvement, and hands-on testing of the aircraft’s core electronic systems — including motor controllers, power distribution units, battery management systems, safety circuits, and communication and networking interfaces. You’ll take designs from architecture through prototyping, validation, and into production, working shoulder-to-shoulder with mechanical, software, and manufacturing team members to ensure every design meets the highest standards of performance, reliability, and safety.

This is a highly hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys spending time in the lab, iterating on boards, running tests, and solving complex hardware problems. You’ll have the opportunity to shape the architecture of a system that will scale Zipline’s impact from thousands to millions of deliveries globally.

What You'll Do

• Engineer and sustain avionics systems currently in service, driving improvements in reliability, manufacturability, and performance while maintaining fleet continuity by assisting with root causing issues

• Evaluate architectural opportunities for the long-range product—proposing re-designs where the impact clearly outweighs cost and risk, and pursuing targeted optimizations that deliver measurable wins.

• Lead trade studies to balance rework scope, operational benefit, and design complexity; provide clear recommendations and technical direction for both short-term fixes and long-term evolution.

• Proactively identify opportunities to simplify, harden, and extend the life of existing designs (system, vehicle, or component level)

• Collaborate cross-functionally across full product lifecycle , including:

• Architecture: Assess and evolve fault tolerance, power efficiency, and system resilience within existing design constraints

• Detailed Design:Implement design revisions, manage component changes, and validate updates through bench and flight testing

• Production: Partner with manufacturing to address quality trends, improve test coverage, and enhance cost efficiency

• Deployment/Sustainment:Lead root-cause analysis for field issues, develop rapid mitigations, and integrate learnings into future revisions

What You'll Bring

• A degree in Electrical Engineering, Embedded Hardware Engineering or equivalent practical experience.

• Minimum 5 years experience designing complex PCBAs, including: circuit analysis, schematic capture, PCB layout, packaging, integration, production, and board-level validation.

• Past success developing electronics for critical systems in fields such as aerospace, transportation, or medical devices.

• Experience with at least some of these desired:

• Lithium Ion battery pack design– BMS, safety, power distribution, etc.

• Power converters: hard-switching and resonant

• BLDC motor drives

• Voltage, current, and temperature sensing analog front ends

• 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.

• Special interest in perfecting an existing impactful product, and diving deep into real-world reliability issues.

• 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.

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, 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!