Engineering Manager, Zipline
Weather Risk Systems
$185-255k
More information about location
5 days a week in office (South San Francisco, CA)
Transforming the way goods move
Be an early applicant
Transforming the way goods move
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$185-255k
More information about location
5 days a week in office (South San Francisco, CA)
1001+ employees
Company mission
To build the world's first logistics system that serves all people equally.
Role
Who you are
- This is a senior leadership role on a team central to Zipline’s ability to scale
- It is not an entry-level role, and it is not a role for someone who wants clean problems, narrow ownership, or slow-moving systems
- You should be a disciplined, first-principles thinker who can connect physics, statistics, software, operations, and product judgment into systems that work in the real world
- You should be comfortable owning ambiguity, making decisions with incomplete information, and being held accountable for the operational consequences of those decisions
- 5+ years of industry experience, with proven people leadership or clear readiness to lead and develop a small high-performing team of 3-5 direct reports
- Deep fluency in scientific Python and common data-analysis tools, including Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, Xarray, and NetCDF
- Ability to learn and work in production languages and systems such as Rust, C++, Kubernetes, and AWS
- Experience with geospatial and meteorological datasets, formats, and tooling
- Strong ability to process large datasets efficiently across distributed systems; experience with Kafka or other streaming systems is highly valuable
- Strong foundations in descriptive statistics, probability, linear algebra, machine learning, and statistical modeling
- Judgment about which analytical or modeling tool to use, when not to overcomplicate the solution, and how to validate whether the answer is operationally useful
- Ability to make large, uncertain datasets visually clear and decision-ready for technical, operational, and executive audiences
- Excellent understanding of meteorology and climatology, including the ability to explain the underlying physics, uncertainty, and operational implications to non-experts
- High self-direction, strong prioritization, and the ability to drive a roadmap while responding to urgent needs in a fast-scaling operational system
- A track record of raising the pace and quality of a small technical team through better tools, clearer priorities, and stronger execution habits
- Experience with aircraft flight, aviation weather, or aviation regulation is valuable. If you do not have it, you must be able to learn it quickly and work effectively with Zipline’s flight sciences leaders
- Bonus: an ability to manipulate the weather would be useful, but not required
- We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from people traditionally underrepresented in tech. If this role sounds exciting but you are not sure whether you meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply
What the job involves
- You will own one of the systems that determines whether Zipline can safely and reliably fly: the automated weather intelligence and risk system that makes real-time operational go/no-go decisions for missions
- This is not a reporting or advisory role. You will be accountable for turning messy, uncertain atmospheric data into clear operational limits, scalable automation, and business-critical decisions that protect safety, reliability, and customer trust
- Building and improving automated weather monitoring systems that make real-time mission go/no-go decisions and forecast conditions that require pausing deliveries
- Defining the flyable weather envelope Zipline needs to hit business goals without compromising safety or automated risk-system integrity
- Driving validation strategy across simulation, historical data, real-world operations, and high-fidelity flight simulation
- Quantifying how weather-system decisions affect uptime, customer experience, fulfillment reliability, and operational throughput
- Developing representative, tractable weather models that can be used in Zipline’s flight simulation and operational planning tools
- Setting clear expectations with customer, fulfillment, and flight operations teams on system uptime, seasonal risk, daily operating constraints, and weather-driven delivery interruptions
- Driving the development of ground- and air-based sensing systems that improve Zipline’s operational risk posture at global scale
- Making hard prioritization calls across safety, uptime, model performance, sensing cost, operational complexity, and speed of deployment
Our take
Zipline is reinventing how the world moves goods - one flight at a time. What started as a bold idea to deliver life-saving medical supplies by drones has grown into the world's first logistics network designed to serve everyone, everywhere. From rushing blood and vaccines to remote clinics, to dropping off everyday essential for Walmart customers, Ziplines's autonomous drones are proving that fast, reliable delivery doesn't have to be limited by roads or geography.
Zipline has an edge over potential future competitors as the company has thousands of hours and over 35 million miles of flight to prove the system is safe and effective. It’s also one of the first companies to receive a full commercial operating certificate, putting Zipline in a strong position to continuously branch out to other markets.
The unicorn company operates globally and has signed its first government contract with Rwanda to provide up to 2 million drone deliveries by 2029. Beyond government partnerships, Zipline has its sight set on everyday consumers, preparing to launch commercial deliveries straight to individuals houses. With its Walmart collaboration expanding and even Chipotle orders taking to the skies in Texas, Zipline isn't just redefining delivery - it's aiming to reach every corner of commerce, with a future that looks as bright as its ambitions.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
34% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 12 rounds)
Mar 2026
$200m
SERIES H
Jan 2026
$600m
SERIES H
Total funding: $2.1bn
Company HQ
South San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Keller Rinaudo Cliffton
(Co-Founder & CEO)Having studied Economics and Biotechnology at Harvard, they worked for almost 11 months as a self-employed rock climber. They combined their academic and practical experience to co-found Zipline in July 2011.
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