Production Manager of Manufacturing Operations
Zipline · South San Francisco, California, USA ·
- Employment
- Full time
- Category
- Management
- Experience
- 8+ years
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 the Production Manager of Manufacturing Operations, responsible for delivering aircraft and autonomy hardware that keep Zipline delivery networks flying. This role sits on-site at our South San Francisco Production Factory and is accountable for transitioning P2 from pilot builds to sustained, high-volume production that meets safety, quality, and service-level requirements. You will lead frontline production teams and partner tightly with Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Design; your decisions affect aircraft availability, field reliability, and customer dispatch rates for Zipline’s autonomous logistics service.
What You'll Do
- Own day-to-day execution and outcomes for 4 Top Level Assembly lines and 12 feeder lines: set and meet daily builds, first-pass yield, and ship-ready rates.
- Drive production to concrete targets: deliver X units/week within Y% of scheduled ship dates
- Manage and develop production supervisors, leads, and technicians across shifts; build staffing plans and run-rate coverage to meet 1st and 2nd shift shift schedules.
- Maintain on-site accountability for quality, safety, and regulatory checkpoints that directly affect aircraft airworthiness and field deployment.
- Lead planning, scheduling, tooling allocation, and build readiness to eliminate line starvation and minimize changeover time.
- Implement, standardize, and enforce SOPs, build packets, work instructions, and manufacturing control systems (MES/ERP) to ensure repeatable assembly and traceability.
- Monitor and own key metrics (throughput, yield, cycle time, downtime, scrap rate, labor efficiency, MTTR) and run weekly performance reviews with concrete corrective actions and owners.
- Support NPI ramp plans: define climb plan, training curriculum, quality gating, and defect-reduction targets during first 6 months of a new product introduction.
- Champion a culture of accountability and safety— fostering proactive risk management, quick and clear communication from techs, and a constant improvement mentality.
What You'll Bring
- Location: on-site at Zipline’s P2 manufacturing facility in South San Francisco. Must be present on-site; role includes shift oversight and occasional weekend or off-hour escalations during ramps or critical incidents.
- Seniority & scope: 8+ years in production/operations leadership with direct P&L or output ownership; experience leading multiple assembly lines and first-line managers.
- Hard requirements: proven experience scaling pilot-to-full-rate manufacturing in electro-mechanical or aerospace/robotics environments; demonstrated MES/ERP proficiency; strong data-driven process control skills.
- Manufacturing intensity: comfortable operating in 12–16 hour ramp days, running shift handovers, and owning rapid escalation decisions under production pressure and tight schedules.
- Safety & regulatory: demonstrated track record owning safety-critical processes, quality gates, and traceability required for fielded systems or regulated hardware.
- Measurable delivery focus: history of meeting throughput, yield, and on-time delivery targets; able to define and hit 90–95%+ first-pass yield or equivalent step-change improvements where applicable.
- Leadership traits: experience hiring, developing, and retaining frontline supervisors and technicians; sets clear performance expectations and enforces accountability.
- Logistics & travel: minimal travel (<10%) between sites or to suppliers; full-time on-site presence required during ramp and steady-state production.
- Education & technical: BS in engineering, operations, or equivalent experience; strong ability to read technical drawings, BOMs, and PFMEA outputs.
- Success in this role will be measured by meeting defined ramp milestones, steady-state units/week, first-pass yield improvements, reduction in defects, and sustained aircraft availability targets for Zipline service.
- This role requires regular on-site presence at Zipline manufacturing facilities; travel between sites may be required during ramp and sustainment phases.
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!
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.