Head of Flight Test

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing Flight Test Engineering team responsible for system-level test strategy, campaign design, automation tooling, data analysis, and risk assessment.
• Own the technical strategy for validating new aircraft capabilities, software releases, hardware changes, delivery operations, docking and charging systems, fleet behavior, and operational concepts.
• Design and oversee comprehensive flight test campaigns for new features, products, metrics, and regression coverage across Zipline's end-to-end logistics system.
• Increase the scope, rigor, and representativeness of flight test coverage while ensuring flight testing is used for the highest-value learning opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to move appropriate coverage from flight test to other modalities, including system simulation, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and ground testing.
• Develop and integrate tools, software workflows, and automated infrastructure that improve flight test precision, insight, capacity, repeatability, utilization and velocity.
• Improve test data analytics, including correctness evaluation, metric development, anomaly detection, trend analysis, and automated reporting.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to define system-level objectives, success criteria, risk posture, and go/no-go decision frameworks.
• Assess hardware, software, and operational readiness for testing, and ensure sound decisions about safety, risk, and execution.
• Partner with Flight Test Operations to improve planning, execution processes, site readiness, incident response, operational scalability, and overall th

Benefits

Additional Information

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. Zipline is looking for a Head of Flight Test Engineering to lead the strategy, execution, and evolution of our flight test program. In this role, you will lead the team responsible for flight test campaigns, automated test infrastructure, test data analysis, and ensuring flight testing delivers the highest-value learning before hardware and software are deployed or updated globally. Flight test is one of Zipline's final lines of defense before changes reach real-world operations. As Head of Flight Test Engineering, you will ensure our program safely, efficiently, and rigorously validates new aircraft capabilities, delivery operations, docking and charging systems, fleet orchestration, and other end-to-end logistics system improvements. This is a highly cross-functional leadership role. You will work closely with Flight Test Operations, Engineering (software, electrical, mechanical, controls, autonomy, cloud and systems), Regulatory, and Product teams to translate complex engineering questions into effective test strategies and execute large-scale campaigns. You will also contribute directly to technical work, including building campaigns, improving tools, defining processes, advancing analytics, expanding coverage, and closing the gap between flight test and commercial operations. The ideal candidate is both a strong technical leader and a hands-on systems thinker. You should be excited to lead and grow a team while diving into test architecture, data, automation, risk assessment, and execution details. You should bring strong judgment about when to move quickly, when to invest in durable infrastructure and process, and how to balance engineering rigor with the pace required to support a rapidly evolving autonomous delivery system.

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