---
title: 'Production Manager of Manufacturing Operations at Zipline'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/production-manager-of-manufacturing-operations-zipline-south-san-francisco-j2y23w046xyc'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Production Manager of Manufacturing Operations at Zipline 

- **Company:** Zipline 
- **Location:** South San Francisco California, United States
- **Posted:** 2026-08-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** https://www.zipline.com/open-roles/7826991003?gh_jid=7826991003

## 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

You are the Production Manager of Manufacturing Operations, responsible for delivering aircraft and autonomy hardware that keep Zipline delivery networks flying. This role sits on-site at our South San Francisco Production Factory and is accountable for transitioning P2 from pilot builds to sustained, high-volume production that meets safety, quality, and service-level requirements. You will lead frontline production teams and partner tightly with Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Design; your decisions affect aircraft availability, field reliability, and customer dispatch rates for Zipline’s autonomous logistics service.

## What You'll Do

- Own day-to-day execution and outcomes for 4 Top Level Assembly lines and 12 feeder lines: set and meet daily builds, first-pass yield, and ship-ready rates.
- Drive production to concrete targets: deliver X units/week within Y% of scheduled ship dates
- Manage and develop production supervisors, leads, and technicians across shifts; build staffing plans and run-rate coverage to meet 1st and 2nd shift shift schedules.
- Maintain on-site accountability for quality, safety, and regulatory checkpoints that directly affect aircraft airworthiness and field deployment.
- Lead planning, scheduling, tooling allocation, and build readiness to eliminate line starvation and minimize changeover time.
- Implement, standardize, and enforce SOPs, build packets, work instructions, and manufacturing control systems (MES/ERP) to ensure repeatable assembly and traceability.
- Monitor and own key metrics (throughput, yield, cycle time, downtime, scrap rate, labor efficiency, MTTR) and run weekly performance reviews with concrete corrective actions and owners.
- Support NPI ramp plans: define climb plan, training curriculum, quality gating, and defect-reduction targets during first 6 months of a new product introduction.
- Champion a culture of accountability and safety— fostering proactive risk management, quick and clear communication from techs, and a constant improvement mentality.

## What You'll Bring

- Location: on-site at Zipline’s P2 manufacturing facility in South San Francisco. Must be present on-site; role includes shift oversight and occasional weekend or off-hour escalations during ramps or critical incidents.
- Seniority & scope: 8+ years in production/operations leadership with direct P&L or output ownership; experience leading multiple assembly lines and first-line managers.
- Hard requirements: proven experience scaling pilot-to-full-rate manufacturing in electro-mechanical or aerospace/robotics environments; demonstrated MES/ERP proficiency; strong data-driven process control skills.
- Manufacturing intensity: comfortable operating in 12–16 hour ramp days, running shift handovers, and owning rapid escalation decisions under production pressure and tight schedules.
- Safety & regulatory: demonstrated track record owning safety-critical processes, quality gates, and traceability required for fielded systems or regulated hardware.
- Measurable delivery focus: history of meeting throughput, yield, and on-time delivery targets; able to define and hit 90–95%+ first-pass yield or equivalent step-change improvements where applicable.
- Leadership traits: experience hiring, developing, and retaining frontline supervisors and technicians; sets clear performance expectations and enforces accountability.
- Logistics & travel: minimal travel (<10%) between sites or to suppliers; full-time on-site presence required during ramp and steady-state production.
- Education & technical: BS in engineering, operations, or equivalent experience; strong ability to read technical drawings, BOMs, and PFMEA outputs.
- Success in this role will be measured by meeting defined ramp milestones, steady-state units/week, first-pass yield improvements, reduction in defects, and sustained aircraft availability targets for Zipline service.
- This role requires regular on-site presence at Zipline manufacturing facilities; travel between sites may be required during ramp and sustainment phases.

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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