Hardware Reliability Engineer

📋 Job Overview

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.

🏢 About Zipline

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.

🎯 The Role

As a Mechanical Hardware Reliability Engineer, you will be responsible for defining and delivering the Safety and Reliability attribute of our latest drone-delivery systems. You’ll combine deep knowledge of failure phenomena in electromechanical devices, hands-on experimentation, and statistical modeling to ensure Zipline’s latest drone-delivery platforms survive the most demanding environments on Earth.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Own the reliability strategy for mission-critical mechanical subsystems or entire systems, applying Design-for-Reliability (DfR) and Physics-of-Failure (PoF) principles.
• Translate system reliability targets into design-level requirements, verification plans, and objective pass/fail criteria.
• Lead DFMEA efforts with cross-functional teams to identify early risks and drive mitigation.
• Develop Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) and environmental test campaigns to validate long-term hardware performance.
• Author test plans and procedures with clear, data-driven pass/fail criteria.
• Lead failure analysis and structured root cause investigations, from component to system-level.
• Lead failure analysis and structured root-cause investigations, translating findings into design, manufacturing, or operational actions.
• Sign off on test verification results and assess hardware readiness for flight from a reliability standpoint.
• Define operational life limits and service intervals using a combination of test data, field returns, and statistical models.
• Advocate cross-functionally for reliability: maintain an appropriately high reliability bar based on risk assessment and stage of program
• Improve Zipline’s reliability methods, tools, standards, and decision-making processes as the company scales.

📌 Required Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Strong mechanical engineering fundamentals and the ability to reason from first principles about hardware behavior and failure.
• Hands-on experience developing and validating safety-critical electromechanical systems through delivery to customers.
• Experience applying reliability methods such as DFMEA, accelerated-life testing, environmental testing, failure analysis, or life modeling.
• Strong technical communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical issues clearly, synthesize ambiguous information into a coherent problem statement, write concise, decision-oriented technical documentation, and drive cross-functional alignment on reliability trade-offs and technical decisions around design, supply-chain, quality, manufacturing, finance, and operations.
• Demonstrated ownership and practical problem-solving ability, including driving technically complex issues through resolution.
• Ability to learn quickly, independently develop new technical depth, and adapt as program needs evolve.

🎁 Benefits

The starting cash range for this role is $100,000 - $160,000. 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.

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

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!