Head of Flight Test

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.

What You’ll Do

• 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 throughput.
• Act as a key stakeholder in release readiness decisions for live operations, ensuring evidence is clear, complete, and decision-useful.
• Support certification and regulatory efforts by ensuring campaigns generate the evidence needed for external approvals.
• Foster a strong safety culture across flight test engineering and operations, ensuring compliance with procedures, regulations, and internal standards.
• Help grow flight test capabilities in new geographies, environments, technologies, and test cases while maintaining the reliability of existing programs.

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of experience designing, developing, validating, or testing complex autonomous, robotic, aerospace, aviation, or safety-critical systems; UAS experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading flight test, system test, validation, or field test engineering teams.
• Strong systems-level judgment, with the ability to balance risk and priorities across software, embedded systems, electrical systems, mechanical systems, controls, operations, and regulatory constraints.
• Experience designing and executing complex test campaigns from objective definition through planning, execution, analysis, and release recommendation.
• Experience building or integrating test automation, analytics tooling, data pipelines, or other scalable validation systems.
• Proven ability to improve coverage, increase efficiency, and determine the right validation modality for a given engineering question.
• Experience assessing hardware and software readiness and making sound go/no-go decisions in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.
• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional technical programs involving engineering, operations, manufacturing, regulatory, and product stakeholders.
• Experience operating where safety, speed, and engineering rigor must be carefully balanced.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical and operational tradeoffs to engineering teams, executives, operators, and regulatory partners.
• Ability to develop leaders, mentor engineers, set technical direction, and build durable team processes.
• Comfort working in field environments and partnering closely with operational teams conducting real-world testing.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally for flight testing, team leadership, and test site support.

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