Senior Mechanical Engineer, Long Range

You are an owner-oriented Mechanical Engineer joining Zipline's Long Range Platform team to design, validate, and deliver critical airframe and electromechanical hardware used in long-distance autonomous delivery aircraft. This role sits at the intersection of field logistics, fleet operations, and mass production: your work will reduce aircraft weight, increase structural and mechanism reliability in harsh field conditions, and enable higher sortie rates for customers who depend on predictable, high-uptime deliveries. You will operate with end-to-end hardware responsibility—from requirement definition and architecture trade-offs through prototype validation, supplier integration, production ramp, and in-field sustainment—and you will make decisions that directly affect fleet availability, safety margins, and cost-per-delivery.

Responsibilities

• Own specific Long Range mechanical subsystems (e.g., wing/fuselage primary structure, deployable delivery mechanism, landing gear and attach fittings, or integrated payload-mount assemblies) and be the primary technical lead from concept to sustained production.
• Translate operational and fleet requirements (range, payload, sortie cadence, field-maintainability, service intervals, and environmental exposure) into quantitative mechanical performance targets and design architectures.
• Produce and iterate detailed CAD models, tolerance stacks, GD&T, and manufacturing drawings enabling supplier quotes, DFx reviews, and inspection plans for volume production.
• Run first-principles analysis and engineering simulation (FEA, buckling, fatigue, jointed-assembly loads) and validate with bench tests and flight-representative test rigs; close the loop between analysis and measured performance.
• Prototype rapidly, lead hands-on build-test-iterate campaigns, and produce test plans that deliver go/no-go metrics (fatigue cycles, damage tolerance thresholds, mean-time-between-failure targets) tied to release criteria and field reliability goals.
• Define and own verification matrices, failure modes & effects for assigned assemblies, and corrective actions through qualification and production ramp; drive root-cause investigations and implement design fixes with clear timelines and acceptance criteria.
• Partner daily with Electrical, Software, Integration/Test, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, and Operations to resolve cross-functional tradeoffs, supplier nonconformances, and production issues; act as the escalation owner for mechanical issues impacting fleet operations.
• Support field deployments and production startups as required (on-site presence during launches, supplier plant visits, or depot troubleshooting) and ensure handoff documentation, service procedures, and spares strategies are in place.

Requirements

• 4+ years industry experience designing electromechanical and structural assemblies; demonstrable ownership of complex subassemblies through full product cycles (design → qualification → production ramp).
• Deep CAD fluency (managing 20–30 part subassemblies and top-level integration), rigorous GD&T skills, and experience producing manufacturing-ready drawings and inspection criteria.
• Proven track record applying FEA, hand calculations (beam, buckling, bolted joints), tolerance analysis, and test correlation to establish safety and reliability margins for flight or field-critical hardware.
• Hands-on prototyping and test experience: you build fixtures, run validation campaigns, and close design loops from test data to production intent.
• Direct supplier engagement experience: negotiating DFM changes, resolving quality issues, and translating supplier capabilities into producible designs.
• Experience with structural components, mechanisms, fastener systems, composites or metallic airframe-scale assemblies, and designing for serviceability in field conditions.
• Willingness and ability to travel to suppliers, production sites, and field depots on an as-needed basis (periodic domestic and occasional international travel).
• Strong bias for taking end-to-end ownership: you will stay with issues until verified fixes are in production and fielded.

Nice to have

• Aerospace or automotive validation experience, composites design, high-efficiency electric powertrain exposure, NX proficiency, and prior experience scaling prototypes to injection molding, stamping, or extrusion processes.

Benefits

• The starting cash range for this role is $145,000 - $220,000. 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.