Service Engineer
Zipline · South San Francisco, California, USA
About this role
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 You and The Role
Do you thrive in high-pressure environments where every minute counts and your decisions directly impact life-saving deliveries? The Service Engineering team sits at the critical nexus between operations and engineering, serving as the first line of technical support for our global fleet of aircraft, droids, and docks. When assets go down, customers can't receive essential supplies—there's no room for delay.
Our Service Engineers are the elite troubleshooters who ensure grounded assets return to service with maximum velocity and quality. You'll work in 24/7 shift operations, serving as the primary technical lead who coordinates cross-team resources, diagnoses complex technical issues, and maintains the operational tempo that keeps Zipline flying around the world.
This role operates under strict regulatory requirements (FAA Part 135) and demanding performance targets to minimize time to service restoration and maximizing first-time fix rates. You'll serve both Flight Test and Commercial Operations, making your work essential to every delivery we make.
What You'll Do
As a Service Engineer, you'll lead technical response as the primary technical lead for grounded assets, coordinating cross-team resources and driving resolution with urgency and precision. Your systematic troubleshooting approach will use approved procedures and diagnostic tools to identify root causes and implement solutions for aircraft, droid, and dock systems. Working in 24/7 shift operations forms a core part of your responsibilities, including comprehensive handovers, on-call duties, and emergency response protocols to maintain continuous coverage.
You'll coordinate cross-team escalation to engineering support and maintenance teams, creating work orders and ensuring smooth handoffs when physical maintenance is required. Log analysis and diagnostics will become second nature as you identify patterns, troubleshoot complex technical issues, and generate reports that drive continuous improvement. Maintaining regulatory compliance with FAA Part 135 operations, CAMP requirements, and repairman certification standards ensures all documentation meets aviation industry standards.
Driving continuous improvement will be central to your role as you contribute to troubleshooting guides, identify automation opportunities, and provide feedback to design engineering on system improvements. You'll operate advanced tools including the Zipline ERP (Zerp) platform, Fleet Apps, incident.io, and Jira to track assets, manage incidents, and coordinate with global teams. Asset triage and prioritization will maximize operational impact, ensuring critical assets return to service first while managing multiple incidents simultaneously.
Documentation and tracking of all troubleshooting activities, resolutions, and lessons learned builds institutional knowledge and supports regulatory requirements.
What You'll Bring
- Your technical background in mechanical, electrical, software, mechatronics, aerospace or systems engineering should demonstrate ability to quickly learn complex technical systems and troubleshoot under pressure.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with experience in systematic troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and technical documentation are essential.
- Operations or maintenance experience with complex systems in high-stakes environments where downtime has significant impact, will prepare you for this role.
- Excellent communication and coordination skills with proven ability to lead technical response, coordinate cross-functional teams, and communicate effectively under pressure are crucial.
- Data analysis capabilities with experience in log analysis, performance metrics, and basic scripting or SQL for troubleshooting and reporting will enhance your effectiveness.
- A continuous improvement mindset with demonstrated ability to identify process improvements, contribute to documentation, and drive operational excellence aligns with our culture.
- Adaptability and resilience to thrive in a rapidly changing environment where procedures, tools, and priorities evolve frequently is essential.
- Customer impact focus with understanding that your work directly affects life-saving deliveries and operational reliability drives everything we do.
Preferred Qualifications
- Technical writing skills with experience creating troubleshooting guides, procedures, and technical documentation support our documentation-driven culture.
- Multi-site operations experience supporting distributed teams and assets across multiple time zones matches our global operations.
- Automation and tooling experience with process improvement, script development, or system integration contributes to our continuous improvement efforts.
What Else You Need to Know
The starting cash range for this role is $90,000 - $130,000. 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; overtime pay; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.
This role requires working 24/7 shift operations including nights, weekends, and holidays as part of our continuous coverage model. You'll participate in on-call rotations and must be available for rapid response when critical assets are grounded.
The position operates under strict performance metrics and regulatory requirements. You'll work in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment where your decisions directly impact customer deliveries and operational safety.
Ability to sit (or stand at a standing desk) for long periods of time to review tickets, conduct analysis and coordinate solutions with engineers when needed.
Travel may be required occasionally for training, certification, or site support activities (10%).
You are eligible to work in the US.
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