---
title: 'Environmental Test Technician at Zipline'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/environmental-test-technician-zipline-south-san-francisco-pwyzy4azg5gf'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-25'
---

# Environmental Test Technician at Zipline 

- **Company:** Zipline 
- **Location:** South San Francisco, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-10-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-25
- **Apply:** https://www.zipline.com/open-roles/8040626003?gh_jid=8040626003

## Job description

## About Zipline

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products.

Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations.

Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe.

We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds.

## About You and The Role

Have you ever had the experience of buying a product and having it break or become defective out of the box quickly and vow you never want to experience that again? If yes, this could be the position for you! As a critical member of the Structural Testing team, you will be part of our mission to make sure that experience is never had by the doctors who rely on us every day. In this role, you will split your time across two essential functions within our R&D test facilities: maintaining and supporting 30+ environmental test chambers used in engineering validation, and executing dynamic and vibration tests across our test assets. You will partner closely with design and reliability teams, providing testing support to increase the speed at which they can produce high-quality designs.

## What You'll Do

Environmental Chambers & R&D Test Support:

- Maintain 30+ environmental test chambers used in R&D testing.
- Perform installation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and repairs for a mix of R&D environmental test chamber systems (Espec, Test Equity, Q-Lab).
- Schedule and conduct preventative maintenance including cleaning, consumables, inspections, and performance testing toward maximizing equipment uptime.
- Assist staff with delivery drone R&D environmental test setups, train users on equipment programming, and uphold continuous operation of the equipment.
- Diagnose and repair mechanical, electrical, and water supply systems.
- Interpret PLC ladder logic, schematics, blueprints, and mechanical diagrams.
- Order, inventory, and manage spare parts, materials, and equipment.
- Coordinate and oversee 3rd-party contractors performing maintenance or repairs.
- Provide on-call response to emergencies according to criticality on a rotating basis with other technicians on the team.

Structural & Vibration Testing:

- Support the vibration lab, including electrodynamic shakers, HALT chambers, and other test systems.
- Execute test plans and develop fixtures for dynamic testing.
- Create test setups to match engineering specifications, which includes interpretation of test procedures and diagrams, instrumentation, data acquisition, test article diagnostics, and front-line root causing.
- Instrument test assets, collect periodic data, and validate lab tests by comparing results with real flight data.
- Perform first-pass data analysis, lead root-causing efforts, and write detailed reports driving to root cause using data and first-order analysis to inform design recommendations.
- Partner with Test Technicians and Engineers across diverse test campaigns, including on-site support at flight test locations.

## What You'll Bring

- Hands-on experience operating, maintaining, or troubleshooting mechanical, electrical, or lab test equipment.
- Ability to interpret PLC ladder logic, electrical specifications, schematics, blueprints, and mechanical drawings.
- Experience working on hardware/software projects and collaborating with hardware engineers.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong attention to detail.
- Ability to organize data in a way that is easy to understand and present facts clearly.
- Hands-on experience in a machine shop, with proficiency in operating common mechanical equipment.
- Preferred (but not required): Prior experience with HVAC/refrigeration systems, data acquisition systems (DAQs), sensors, instrumentation, or vibration controllers.
- Physical ability to climb ladders, lift equipment, and work in confined spaces.
- Flexibility to participate in a rotating on-call schedule and support shifting lab test priorities.

What Else You Need To Know

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply! Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

## About Zipline 

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Zipline is an American robotics company that operates the world’s largest autonomous drone delivery service, transporting medical supplies, food, and retail goods across multiple continents.
- **Entity Type**: Private (early-stage startup)
- **Headquarters**: South San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: March 2014
- **Founders**: Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, Keenan Wyrobek, Ryan Oksenhorn, William Hetzler

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Logistics / Drone delivery
- **Target customers**: B2B (healthcare systems, governments, retailers like Walmart and Chipotle) and B2C (home delivery via the Zipline app)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Build the first logistics system that serves all people equally” – initially focused on saving lives by delivering blood and medicine to remote communities, now expanded to instant urban delivery.

## Products & Services
- **Platform 1 (P1)**: Long-range, rural delivery drone. Carries up to 4 lbs, roundtrip range 120+ miles, cruise speed 60 mph. Uses parachute delivery. Designed for enterprise, government, and healthcare supply chains.
- **Platform 2 (P2)**: Urban/suburban home delivery drone. Carries up to 8 lbs, service radius 10 miles (or 24 miles one way), cruise speed 70 mph. Delivers via a tether from up to 300 ft, allowing contactless drop-off. Launched in 2025 and used for food, retail, and health products.
- **Zipping Points**: Modular ground stations that allow businesses to load orders onto drones without specialized equipment.
- **FlightIQ**: Advanced onboard autonomy and perception suite for safe navigation and delivery.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available
- **Key Metric**: 2 million commercial deliveries completed (as of January 2026) and 130 million autonomous miles flown.[wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipline_(drone_delivery_company))[zipline-fact-sheet](https://www.zipline.com/about/zipline-fact-sheet)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not disclosed in available sources. Key partners include Walmart, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Crumbl, Blaze Pizza, Wendy’s, and many other restaurant brands. In healthcare, works with more than 5,000 hospitals and health centers.
- **Growth Signals**: Expanded into urban home delivery in 2025 (P2) with service in Pea Ridge, Arkansas and 20+ communities in Dallas-Fort Worth. Obtained FAA authorization for beyond visual line of sight operations. Reports 56% decrease in maternal mortality and 66% decrease in missed malaria treatments in served regions.[zipline-fact-sheet](https://www.zipline.com/about/zipline-fact-sheet)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Autonomous drone fleet**: One of the world’s largest commercial deployments of autonomous robots, with custom software running on Nvidia chips.
- **FAA approval**: All operations and aircraft are FAA-approved, including pioneering use of Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM).
- **Quieter than road vehicles**: Drones hover high and descend on a tether, generating noise lower than common neighborhood sounds.
- **Extensive testing**: One of the largest aviation testing campaigns, with operations in rain, wind, and storms.
- **Integrated logistics platform**: Beyond drones, Zipline provides warehousing, inventory management, cold chain storage, and fulfillment software.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the Platform 2 urban delivery network across the U.S., particularly through partnerships with major retailers and restaurants.
- Deepening healthcare impact by expanding into new countries and product categories (prescriptions, groceries, convenience items).
- Continuing to reduce delivery times and environmental footprint (0 emissions per delivery, compared to automotive delivery).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture values**: Ownership & Accountability, Direct Feedback & Communication, Continuous Improvement, Customer Obsession, Servant Leadership (as stated on careers page). Emphasis on “Make it matter” and mission-driven work.[careers](https://www.zipline.com/careers)
- **Work environment**: Headquartered in South San Francisco with hardware and software teams. The company assembles its drones in America. Likely on-site given the hardware focus; remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated.
- **Impact**: Opportunity to work on life-saving technology (60,000+ lives saved) and shape the future of instant logistics.
- **Engineering culture**: Build and iterate on autonomous systems, airspace deconfliction, and large-scale robotics deployments.

## Sources
1. [Zipline Careers](https://www.zipline.com/careers)
2. [Zipline Homepage](https://www.zipline.com/)
3. [About Zipline](https://www.zipline.com/about)
4. [Zipline Fact Sheet](https://www.zipline.com/about/zipline-fact-sheet)
5. [Wikipedia - Zipline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipline_(drone_delivery_company))
6. [Greenhouse Careers Page](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/flyzipline)

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