Senior/Staff Systems Modeling Engineer, Electric Propulsion

The role

You will own and advance electric propulsion modeling capability across motors, inverters, gearboxes and propellers. You will develop physics-based models to guide aircraft architecture, sizing, and design decisions.

What you will do

• Own the electric-propulsion modeling roadmap, framework, validation standards, and deployment.
• Lead trade studies for propulsion architecture, sizing, operating limits, thermal management, control strategies, and performance optimization.
• Develop and validate physics-based models of electric propulsion systems.
• Design and lead characterization campaigns for parameter identification and model validation.
• Build and own clean, modular, object-oriented modeling frameworks and engineering tools.
• Improve model fidelity by comparing predictions against laboratory testing and production flight data.
• Partner with electrical, mechanical, thermal, controls, flight test, manufacturing, and fleet operations teams.

Required qualifications

• 8+ years of industry experience developing and validating physics-based models for electric powertrains, aerospace systems, electric vehicles, robotics, or other complex electro-mechanical systems.
• Strong heat-transfer fundamentals and experience building, parameterizing, and validating lumped-parameter thermal networks for electric machines or power electronics.
• Track record of using quantitative analysis and modeling to drive engineering decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to design experimental characterization campaigns for parameter identification and model validation.
• Proficiency in MATLAB, Python, Julia, Rust, or similar languages.
• Experience developing clean, modular, object-oriented engineering code and reusable modeling frameworks.
• Solid foundation in numerical methods, optimization, controls, and engineering model validation.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability and willingness to work onsite with cross-functional engineering teams.

Nice to have

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
• Familiarity with motor and inverter loss mechanisms and modeling approaches.
• Experience using high-fidelity electromagnetic and thermal simulation tools such as ANSYS Motor-CAD, ANSYS Maxwell, JMAG, COMSOL, ANSYS Icepak, or similar.
• Familiarity with production telemetry, fleet operations, or hardware test data for engineering model validation and continuous improvement.

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 food, medicine and essential goods.