Lead Mechanical Engineer, Production Equipment

The role

You will own mechanical equipment for aircraft assembly, battery integration, dock components, and flight-critical subsystems. The role involves 75% designing, building, commissioning, and improving equipment and 25% people and program leadership.

What you will do

• Lead mechanical equipment design reviews and technical tradeoffs
• Establish consistent tooling standards
• Coordinate priorities and release readiness across equipment projects
• Own end-to-end delivery of production equipment and tooling projects
• Design and install alignment fixtures, press and torque tooling, and ergonomic operator stations
• Lead on-line debugging and rapid root-cause analysis during launches and ramp phases
• Create and enforce tooling design standards, GD&T practices, and tolerance stacks
• Mentor and review work of 1–4 tooling engineers and technicians
• Coordinate cross-functionally with Design Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Test Engineering, and Field Operations
• Manage relationships with fabricators and vendors

Required qualifications

• Experience designing production equipment, fixtures, or custom automation in a high-volume or fast-ramping manufacturing environment
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent practical experience
• Mastery of GD&T, tolerance analysis, mechanism design, material selection, and failure-mode thinking
• Proficiency in 3D CAD
• Hands-on experience commissioning equipment on the factory floor
• Practical knowledge of pneumatics, actuators, sensors, linear motion, machine guarding, and industrial electrical interfaces
• Track record delivering quantitative outcomes
• Ability to lead vendor builds and perform acceptance testing

Nice to have

• 5–7 years of relevant experience
• Experience with aerospace, drones, medical devices, or safety-critical electro-mechanical products

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.