Production Materials Manager
South San Francisco, CA, USA
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
The Production Materials Manager leads Zipline's Production Materials organization, owning the strategy, people, processes, and systems that ensure the right material is available in the right quantity, at the right place, and at the right time to support manufacturing. The organization is responsible for every movement of production material after it arrives onsite—from receiving and warehouse operations to inventory control, inspection staging, line-side replenishment, internal logistics, and finished goods movement.
This role leads multiple frontline leaders responsible for warehouse operations and line-side logistics while partnering closely with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Planning, Quality, Engineering, and Facilities. As Zipline scales production from today's rates to hundreds of aircraft per week, you'll design and continuously evolve the operating model, warehouse strategy, and material flow systems that enable high-rate manufacturing.
Success in this role requires balancing long-term strategic thinking with operational execution. You'll build the organizational structure, processes, and tools needed to support exponential growth while ensuring world-class performance in production uptime, inventory accuracy, warehouse health, replenishment performance, operational efficiency, safety, and team development.
What You'll Do
Lead the Organization
- Lead, coach, and develop the Production Materials leadership team, including Warehouse Leads, Material Replenishment Leads, and future operational leaders.
- Build a high-performing organization through hiring, performance management, succession planning, and employee development.
- Establish clear ownership, accountability, and operating rhythms across all Production Materials functions.
- Foster a culture centered on safety, operational excellence, continuous improvement, and customer service.
Build The System
- Architect and implement scalable warehouse, replenishment, inventory management, and internal logistics systems capable of supporting 10×–100× production growth.
- Develop and execute the roadmap for warehouse expansion, offsite storage, milk runs, supermarket design, line-side inventory strategies, and material movement systems.
- Design, standardize, and continuously improve material flow processes, inventory transactions, replenishment methods, warehouse operations, and material disposition workflows across the Production Materials organization.
- Build the operational management system by establishing KPIs, dashboards, operating rhythms, labor planning, capacity planning, and standard operating procedures that enable operational excellence.
- Partner with internal software teams to define the product vision, operational requirements, and roadmap for in-house tools that improve inventory visibility, material flow, warehouse operations, and production replenishment.
- Evaluate and implement new technologies, automation, and industry best practices to improve safety, efficiency, scalability, and operational performance.
Operate the System
- Oversee receiving, warehouse operations, inventory control, IQC staging, line-side replenishment, internal logistics, and finished goods movement.
- Ensure uninterrupted production by maintaining high material availability while minimizing inventory waste and operational inefficiencies.
- Partner closely with Supply Chain, Planning, Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, Facilities, and internal software teams to continuously improve production readiness, material flow, and operational capabilities.
- Define the product vision and operational requirements for in-house software tools that support warehouse operations, inventory management, material movement, and production replenishment, partnering closely with software engineering teams to guide development and implementation.
- Own warehouse organization standards, inventory governance, replenishment performance, and operational KPIs.
- Develop and standardize material movement processes, inventory transactions, material disposition workflows, and operating procedures across the Production Materials organization.
- Drive continuous improvement through data, KPI dashboards, labor planning, capacity planning, and digital tools that improve inventory visibility, traceability, and operational decision-making.
What You'll Bring
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, or a related field.
- 8+ years of experience in warehouse operations, manufacturing logistics, supply chain, production materials, or related manufacturing operations, including 4+ years leading teams and frontline leaders.
- Experience leading operations in fast-paced manufacturing environments with a strong understanding of what world-class, high-volume production material systems look like.
- Strong understanding of warehouse management, inventory control, line-side replenishment, internal logistics, and material flow within a manufacturing environment.
- Experience developing and implementing operational systems, standardized work, and process improvements that improve safety, quality, and operational performance.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with experience using operational metrics and data to drive decision-making.
- Experience with ERP, WMS, MRP, or Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES).
- Proven ability to build strong cross-functional partnerships across Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Planning, Quality, Engineering, and Facilities.
- Excellent leadership, communication, organizational, and change management skills with the ability to balance strategic planning with operational execution.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting high-volume or rapidly scaling manufacturing operations.
- Experience with Lean Manufacturing, Toyota Production System, Kanban, supermarket replenishment, milk runs, point-of-use inventory, or other lean material flow methodologies.
- Experience leading warehouse expansions, facility startups, automation projects, or major operational transformations.
What Else You Need To Know
This is an in-person role based in South San Francisco, CA.
Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.
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!
