Director of Hardware Engineering - Dropbox
Zipline · South San Francisco, California, USA ·
- Category
- Hardware
- Company size
- 501-1000
Lead a hardware team to design, validate, and deploy Zipline's Dropbox system, a first-of-its-kind autonomous package handling product for drone logistics.
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
Dropbox is Zipline’s ground-side hardware system for autonomous package loading, storage, transfer, and pickup. It combines mechatronics, electrical systems, sensing, test infrastructure, field reliability, manufacturability, and site deployment constraints into one customer facing product.
This role reports to the Chief Hardware Officer and will lead the mechanical, electrical, test, and technician teams responsible for taking this first of its kind product from architecture through design, validation, launch, and scalable deployment.
What You'll Do
- Own Dropbox hardware execution across ME, EE, test, technician work, integration, validation, and release readiness.
- Lead system-level architecture tradeoffs across throughput, reliability, safety, installability, manufacturability, serviceability, regulatory impact, and cost per deployed site.
- Drive the hardware path from prototype through production-intent design, including mechanisms, enclosure, sensing, harnessing, power, electronics, and test coverage.
- Build the hardware team’s operating system: priorities, staffing, technical reviews, issue triage, design gates, DVP&R, build planning, and escalation paths.
- Manage technical risk across moving mechanisms, dynamic harnesses, motor/sensor architecture, package handoff, public-facing safety, environmental exposure, and field service.
- Partner with firmware, autonomy, RF, cloud, operations, manufacturing, supply chain, regulatory, and customer-facing teams to make Dropbox deployable at real partner sites.
- Create durable validation evidence for mechanical safety, electrical safety, environmental robustness, package quality, site compatibility, and operational reliability.
- Lead root-cause analysis and corrective action for design, test, production, and field issues.
- Hire, coach, and manage a world class multidisciplinary team of mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, test engineers, and technicians.
- Make clear decisions when the team must trade speed, robustness, complexity, cost, and future extensibility.
What You'll Bring
- You know have demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary hardware teams, challenging world class engineers to do the best work of their lives through fast product development cycles.
- Outstanding mechanical and electrical system judgment, with enough depth to challenge architecture, test plans, and failure-mode assumptions.
- Experience with electromechanical products involving motion, sensing, harnessing, safety interlocks, environmental exposure, and production validation.
- Demonstrated ability to manage hardware development from architecture through builds, test, supplier engagement, manufacturing handoff, and field support.
- Strong product judgment around user experience, reliability, manufacturability, serviceability, and cost, not just first-article performance.
- Ability to build team structure, clarify ownership, and turn ambiguous technical work into executable plans.
- Comfort operating across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, operations, regulatory, and leadership stakeholders.
- Clear written and verbal communication, especially around technical risk, decision logs, trade studies, and launch readiness.
- Bias toward evidence: test data, prototyping, design reviews, failure analysis, and explicit acceptance criteria.
What Else You Need To Know
The starting cash range for this role is $225,000-275,000. 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; overtime pay; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.
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!
Voluntary Self-Identification
For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.
As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.