Electrical Engineer

South San Francisco, CA | Ground Systems | Full Time

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. Through our robotics and autonomy platforms, we’re decarbonizing delivery, reducing road congestion and emissions, and increasing access to essential goods worldwide.

About the Role
The Ground Systems team is responsible for developing the components to support the aircraft landing, charging, loading and launching. We are looking for an Electrical Engineer with a strong foundation in EE design and an excellent grasp of electronics development, processes, and tools. In this role, you will develop hardware for our next generation ground systems which involves designing electronics in at least one of the following fields: Microprocessor, high-speed communication, GNSS, brushless DC motor drive, power supply, battery charger and more.

These components are at the core of enabling autonomous takeoff and landing for our fleet of next generation aircraft and seamless integration with our shipper sites that will enable Zipline’s impact to expand from 100,000 deliveries/year to 100 million across the globe. In addition, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with world class engineers across all disciplines and experience levels. Zipline values personal development highly and encourages an environment of continuous learning and mentorship.

The Ground Systems team encounters many challenges when designing robust systems to provide life-saving service in some of the harshest environments on Earth. At the start of any project, our team plays a vital role in system architecture, designing for performance, reliability, and fault tolerance, while balancing mass and cost. Included in this is the design of an UL compliant system to ensure the safety of employees, customers, and bystanders. Our sophisticated autonomous fleet also requires us to build custom electro-mechanical solutions with high performance embedded computing and high speed communication. To achieve Zipline’s goal of serving anyone anywhere, all aspects of a design must also be successful in a wide range of real-world environments by being robust against environmental, ESD, and EMI threats. These are just some of the many challenges that make us excited to go to work everyday.

What You’ll Do

• Own the electrical design for volume production through a full design cycle including requirements, prototype, schematic capture, layout, and validation.
• Making impactful design decisions daily, while working with a high level of independence.
• Lead trade studies, understand competing design priorities, and provide direction and clarity for burning down risk.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with reliability, mechanical, embedded, and systems engineers in all stages of development, including:
• Concept: System requirement, specification
• Design: Schematic capture, PCB layout, system integration
• Validation: Function and reliability test
• Production: DFM, design drawings, manufacturing, EOL test, certification
• Deployment: Troubleshoot field issues, develop rapid mitigations, roll learnings into future design revision
• Travel occasionally to support supplier and manufacturer visit, product deployment, and field validation

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering or related discipline
• Minimum 3 years of hardware design experience including: Electronics circuit design, schematic capture, PCB layout, packaging, integration, validation and transitioning a product to production.
• Past success developing electronics for critical systems in fields such as energy, transportation, or medical devices.
• Design experience with mixed-signal PCB, high-speed digital PCB, microprocessor, ethernet, power electronics, and motor drive.
• Proficiency in schematic capture, PCB layout, and simulation tools (Altium, SPICE, etc.)
• Strong lab skills and familiarity with test equipment like oscilloscope, digital multimeter, power analyzer, LCR meter, function generator, spectrum analyzer, etc
• Design experience with UL safety requirements and EMC requirements preferred
• Design experience with embedded programming in Linux system is a plus
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across engineering disciplines
• Must be eligible to work in the U.S.