Aviation Sustainment Engineer
Zipline
About Zipline
About You and The Role
Do you love finding creative ways to solve time-sensitive, mission-critical technical and operational problems? The Aviation Sustainment Engineering (ASE) team is the first responder whenever our customers encounter issues and are tasked with providing prompt, sound, customer-centric solutions to facilitate unblocking our customers to perform critical deliveries. Furthermore, the ASE team is responsible for monitoring the in-field performance of our aircraft and ground equipment, identifying trending issues, supporting mitigation activities before identified issues significantly impact our operations, and providing insight to cross-functional stakeholders to enable targeted improvements to cost, reliability, and operational availability of our fleet.
As an Aviation Sustainment Engineer, your job will be to ensure our customers are always able to perform mission-critical deliveries, especially as we continue to scale. This means not only being savvy in solving “today’s problems”, but also maintaining a high-level view and being proactive in identifying inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and other future operational challenges the company may face. You will work closely with Field Support Engineers, various operational leads, and our flight and fulfillment operators to eliminate issues early and drive operational improvements to ensure Zipline succeeds as we scale. If working in a highly cross-functional environment, solving complex problems, and driving continuous improvement appeal to you, you’ll thrive here.
What You'll Do
- Become the go-to subject matter expert on troubleshooting and repairing aircraft systems—specifically in the domain of either onboard software or drone communications (e.g., C2 over cellular or line-of-sight)
- Monitor in-service feedback and triage emergent technical and operational issues, partnering with Field Systems Engineers, Design Engineering, and Operations to develop both timely mitigations and long-term solutions
- Lead root cause investigations and support containment, corrective, and preventive actions (RCCA/PA) with clear technical insight
- Maintain broad visibility into fleet performance; perform data deep dives to uncover trends, generate intuitive visualizations, and deliver actionable insights to stakeholders
- Own the development and maintenance of operator-facing documentation—including troubleshooting guides and field procedures that help frontline teams deliver reliable service
- Provide domain expertise in support of continuous improvement initiatives, enhancing system reliability, capability, and usability where applicable
What You'll Bring
- You have a background in engineering, field service or maintenance, with experience working on embedded systems or highly autonomous platforms
- You have the ability to translate between operational needs and technical solutions across domains like software, communications, and electromechanical systems
- You have a track record of diagnosing and resolving complex technical issues in fast-paced, high-stakes environments–ideally with hands-on exposure to hardware-software interactions
- You have the grit, resourcefulness, and resilience to thrive in novel, uncertain and constantly evolving business and operating contexts
- You have basic fluency in data analysis using languages like Python and SQL
- You can communicate effectively (verbally and in writing) and have the ability to build and maintain strong working relationships with a variety of cross-functional stakeholders
- You are motivated by helping people and unblocking operations
- You are willing to work some nights/weekends and travel roughly 10-15% of the time
- You are eligible to work in Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, or Nigeria, and local to—or willing to relocate to—a Zipline distribution center in your country of employment
Candidates from adjacent domains—such as IT, networking, or systems integration—with relevant hardware exposure and a strong interest in drone technology are encouraged to apply.
What Else You Need to Know
