About this Supplier Industrialization Engineer role at Zipline
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
You are a highly technical Supplier Industrialization Engineer helping strengthen the mechanical supply chain for Zipline’s autonomous, safety-critical aviation platform.
You will own the technical readiness and ongoing performance of suppliers producing machined parts, plastics, composites, motors, rotating components, and mechanical or electromechanical assemblies. Your work directly affects aircraft reliability, flight readiness, regulatory compliance, program schedule, and our ability to provide customers with consistent, high-uptime delivery operations.
This role sits at the intersection of Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and external suppliers. You will translate product requirements into stable manufacturing, inspection, and qualification processes while driving technical risks and supplier issues to closure.
What You'll Do
- Own technical supplier readiness for an assigned portfolio of mechanical parts and assemblies from sourcing through qualification, production ramp, and sustaining.
- Assess supplier capability, support selection and onboarding, and lead technical audits, validation builds, and production-readiness reviews.
- Review drawings, GD&T, tolerances, materials, finishes, special processes, and acceptance criteria for manufacturability and inspectability.
- Partner with Design Engineering to incorporate supplier feedback, resolve deviations, and improve drawings and specifications.
- Define risk-based qualification, inspection, control, and acceptance plans, including FAI, PPAP, capability studies, gauge R&R, and process validation.
- Evaluate supplier tooling, fixtures, process flow, work instructions, inspection methods, capacity, and production controls.
- Lead containment, root-cause analysis, and permanent corrective action for supplier quality issues.
- Work with Supply Chain on recovery plans, second sourcing, material or process changes, and mitigations needed to protect schedule and budget.
- Maintain clear status, risks, decisions, owners, and deadlines across multiple supplier workstreams.
- Travel to supplier and Zipline sites to support qualification, production ramp, audits, and urgent issue resolution.
What You'll Bring
- 5+ years of experience in supplier industrialization, supplier quality, manufacturing engineering, mechanical design, NPI, or a related hardware role.
- Demonstrated ownership of supplier qualification or production readiness for a meaningful portfolio of parts, suppliers, or programs.
- Hands-on depth in at least two relevant manufacturing domains, such as machining, plastics, composites, motors, rotating assemblies, or mechanical assembly.
- Experience transitioning safety- or reliability-critical hardware from prototype into stable production.
- Strong knowledge of manufacturing processes, tooling, fixtures, inspection, measurement systems, and process control.
- Ability to read and challenge drawings, GD&T, tolerance schemes, specifications, and manufacturing documentation.
- Experience with qualification plans, inspection plans, PFMEAs, capability studies, control plans, and corrective actions.
- Strong technical judgment and the ability to work through incomplete or conflicting information.
- Ability to manage complex information and communicate clear, decision-ready recommendations to Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and suppliers.
- Willingness to travel regularly and remain engaged until corrective actions are verified in production.
Location & Logistics
- This role is based in South San Francisco and onsite to support prototype builds, qualification, production launches, and issue resolution.
- Supplier travel is expected, particularly during selection, qualification, ramp, and recovery efforts. Some travel may occur on short notice.
- The role combines planned industrialization work with urgent production support and may involve several suppliers or commodities simultaneously.
- Supply Chain owns commercial negotiations; this role owns the technical recommendation and supporting evidence.
- Design Engineering owns product requirements; this role is expected to challenge unclear, unsafe, costly, or unmanufacturable requirements and help drive updates.
Nice-to-have
- Deep expertise in precision machining, injection molding, composites, motors, or mechanical assembly.
- Strong GD&T and tolerance-analysis skills.
- Experience with NX, SolidWorks, CATIA, or Creo.
- Experience with APQP, PPAP, FAI, SPC, gauge R&R, and supplier audits.
- Experience with motors, bearings, shafts, gears, seals, bonding, welding, coatings, or other special processes.
- Experience in aerospace, automotive, robotics, medical devices, or another regulated or reliability-sensitive industry.
- Experience supporting supplier recovery, second sourcing, or production transfer.
Success Metrics You’ll Be Measured Against
- 90–95% of assigned qualification and production-readiness milestones completed on schedule.
- Critical supplier characteristics meeting agreed process-capability targets, typically Cp/Cpk of 1.33 or greater where applicable.
- Measurable reduction in supplier defects, escapes, repeat deviations, rework, and incoming-inspection burden.
- Supplier corrective actions closed within agreed timelines, typically 30–60 days depending on severity.
- Zero unapproved supplier process, material, tooling, or location changes affecting released hardware.
- Technical risks identified early enough to avoid production stoppages, flight-readiness impacts, or unplanned program delays.
- Recovery and second-source plans implemented with minimal impact to schedule and budget.
- Complete, traceable, and usable drawings, specifications, inspection plans, and qualification records.
- Supplier yield, process stability, quality, and delivery performance meeting or improving against program targets.
What Else You Need To Know
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!
