Hiring: Mechanical Engineer, Ground Systems Company: Zipline Location: South San Francisco, CA Job Posted Time: 2026-09-10 10:33:46 Employment Type: Contract Target Skills & Keywords : Assembly, CAD, Linear About the job Experience: •10+ years of mechanical/electromechanical design engineering experience delivering complex subsystems or products through NPI into production Required Skills: •Own the end-to-end delivery of mechanical and electromechanical subsystems, from requirements definition through concept development, design, build, verification, release, production ramp, and sustaining engineering •Produce and defend system-level trade studies, tolerance stacks, load paths, failure modes, and hand-calcs that bound designs for safety-critical loads and manufacturability. •Create CAD assemblies, detailed drawings, GD&T, and manufacturing documentation for 20–100 part assemblies; own design reviews, DFM, and first-article criteria. •Develop and execute verification plans (environmental, fatigue, vibration, thermal, EMI/EMC where applicable), build test rigs/fixtures, run test campaigns, analyze results, and close findings with corrective actions and measurable reliability improvements •Lead supplier selection, qualification, and handoff: drive DFM feedback, define inspection criteria, and reduce supplier NPI cycle time and scrap rates. Own escalation and remediation when supplier output risks field operations •Partner daily with Systems, Software, Production, Integration & Test, Reliability, and Field Ops to align requirements, manage trade-offs, and eliminate deployment blockers •Translate prototypes into designs that meet target cost, cycle time, and inspection rates for medium-volume production; own metrics for manufacturability and in-field reliability and drive them to target. •Serve as a technical authority in design reviews and postmortems; lead incident root-cause investigations when field events occur Qualifications: •5–10+ years of mechanical/electromechanical design engineering experience delivering complex subsystems or products through NPI into production •Proven track record owning complex subassemblies or full systems over at least 2 product programs (concept, prototype, validation, production) •Strong mechanical engineering fundamentals including load estimation, structural hand calcs, FEA, material selection, clean CAD designs and design-for-assembly/field-service practices •Demonstrated experience designing mechanisms and actuator systems, including selection and integration of motors, gearboxes, bearings, linear actuators, springs, linkages, sensors, and other motion-control components. •Practical knowledge of manufacturing methods such as welding, sheetmetal forming, extrusion, CNC machining, injection molding, etc •Strong CAD and documentation skills: able to own 3D assemblies and 2D detail drawings for 20–100 part systems; experience with NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent •Disciplined processes: Your parts are released, BOMs are maintained, SOPs created for builds, and timelines are up-to-date •Excellent written, verbal, and visual communication. You know how to tailor to your audience with the right level of technical depth to be as effective as possible, including using basic tools in place of full CAD when it makes sense •Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline •Demonstrated capacity to periodically (<10%) travel to visit customers and suppliers Compensation: •$135,000 - $225,000 / year Interested candidates, please apply directly through the job posting on company's career page or try via AI auto apply on this platform. Don't miss this opportunity to join a forward-thinking team!