Staff Optomechanical Engineer

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.

We are seeking a Staff Optomechanical Engineer to lead end-to-end mechanical development for camera modules, camera brackets/mounts, and camera clearance (packaging) for drone/UAV applications. In this role, you will own mechanical architecture from concept through production, ensuring robust performance across vibration, shock, thermal, environmental exposure, and flight operations. You will partner closely with electrical, optical, firmware, manufacturing, and flight-test teams to deliver camera hardware that meets demanding weight, stiffness, alignment, reliability, and producibility targets.

What You'll Bring

End-to-End Mechanical Ownership

• Own the complete mechanical development lifecycle for UAV camera hardware: requirements, concept, CAD, analysis, prototyping, test, design iteration,release, production support.

• Translate system requirements (optical alignment, FOV, stabilization constraints, IP rating, mass properties, thermal limits) into mechanical designs and specifications.

Camera Modules & Packaging

• Design mechanical solutions for camera modules (housing, lens/barrel interfaces, heat sinking, sealing, connectors/strain relief, EMI/ESD considerations in coordination with EE).

• Drive packaging and clearance studies ensuring camera placement meets:

• Field-of-view and occlusion constraints

• Pitch/yaw/roll envelope

• Assembly & serviceability

• Own integration of camera hardware into primary structure defining datum schemes and tolerance stack-ups.

Brackets, Mounts, and Structural Design

• Design lightweight, high-stiffness camera brackets/mounts optimized for drone mass constraints.

• Develop robust designs for vibration/shock environments.

• Ensure alignment stability over temperature, time, and mechanical loading.

DFM/DFA, Materials, and Manufacturing

• Select materials and finishes appropriate for flight environments

• Drive DFM/DFA for machining, sheet metal, die casting, injection molding, additive manufacturing, and composite integration as appropriate.

• Create detailed drawings with GD&T, define critical-to-quality dimensions, and establish inspection strategies.

• Partner with suppliers/CMs to refine designs for cost, yield, and assembly efficiency.

Analysis, Testing, and Validation

• Plan and execute mechanical verification through in-house and CM test

• Perform or guide FEA/CFD (static, modal, thermal) and correlate models to test data.

• Lead root-cause investigations for mechanical failures and implement corrective actions.

Documentation & Cross-Functional

• Create and maintain mechanical requirements, DFMEA/PFMEA inputs, test plans, reports, and release packages (BOMs, drawings, ECNs/ECRs).

• Provide technical leadership in design reviews (PDR/CDR, drawing reviews, tolerance reviews).

• Support production ramp with build support, failure analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Nice To Have

• Full life cycle ownership experience for mechanical thermal solutions

• Experience designing and testing single cell failure and propagation mitigation strategies

• Experience with high-volume final assembly and test (thousands to millions units per year)

• Experience designing safety-critical aerospace or automotive products

• Familiarity with rigid and flexible PCB manufacturing: you may not know how to do the layout, but you know how it all mechanically comes together

• NX is your primary CAD tool