Senior / Staff Mechanical Engineer, Dropbox

The role

You will own the mechanical architecture and detailed design of Dropbox assemblies through validation, production ramp, and fleet operation. This role involves making architecture-level tradeoffs for an unattended field-facing product to ensure safety, reliability, and manufacturability.

What you will do

• Own end-to-end mechanical scope for Dropbox assemblies including requirements, architecture, CAD, drawings, specifications, and BOMs.
• Define success metrics for systems such as target field MTBF and service MTTR.
• Translate customer workflows and hazard analyses into mechanical requirements.
• Lead trade studies across safety, reliability, manufacturability, and cost.
• Create GD&T, datum strategy, and tolerance stack-ups.
• Perform first-principles analysis, hand calculations, kinematic analysis, and FEA.
• Integrate actuators, transmissions, bearings, sensors, PCBAs, and seals into assemblies.
• Partner with Electrical, Embedded Software, Systems, Test, Reliability, Manufacturing, Operations, and Safety teams.
• Prototype rapidly and run targeted experiments and test campaigns.
• Lead investigations of prototype, production, and field failures.

Required qualifications

• Proven end-to-end ownership of electromechanical hardware through concept, validation, production ramp, and field deployment.
• Deep mechanism and structure design experience with actuators, transmissions, bearings, and seals.
• Strong mechanical fundamentals including hand calculations, FEA, kinematics, and tolerance analysis.
• Advanced CAD skills managing system-level assemblies and drawing releases.
• Demonstrated GD&T mastery, datum strategy, and practical tolerance-stack experience.
• Prototyping and test experience.
• Track record resolving complex or intermittent hardware failures through root-cause analysis.
• Experience integrating PCBAs, wiring harnesses, motors, sensors, and embedded controls.
• Experience working directly with suppliers and manufacturing to ship high-volume hardware.
• Ability to work in-person in South San Francisco.
• Comfortable with travel (~10–25% typical).
• Comfortable with high-responsibility, hands-on delivery cadence including production-support nights.

Benefits

• Equity compensation
• Discretionary annual or performance bonuses
• Sales incentives
• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Paid time off

About the company

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. They design, build, and operate an autonomous logistics system to deliver critical supplies like food and medicine.