---
title: 'Site Launcher at Zipline'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/site-launcher-zipline-south-san-francisco-qydn2dehzaeb'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Site Launcher at Zipline 

- **Company:** Zipline 
- **Location:** South San Francisco, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-09-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://www.zipline.com/open-roles/8004987003?gh_jid=8004987003

## 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

As a Site Launcher, you are the on-the-ground point person for bringing new Zipline charging locations and partner sites into service. You turn launch plans into coordinated action: bringing teams together, verifying readiness, resolving blockers, and carrying each assigned site through first deliveries and handoff to ongoing operations.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role with real ownership. You will be trusted to run day-to-day site execution without constant direction, lead people who do not report to you, and make sound decisions as conditions change. You will work closely with the Launch Manager on broader planning and major tradeoffs, while owning daily priorities, follow-through, and clear communication from the field. You know when to act independently, when to bring in a functional expert, and when to escalate.

Success means sites are genuinely ready to launch, teams know what comes next, and risks are visible early enough to act.

## What You'll Do

- Lead the launch on the ground. Serve as the primary day-to-day coordination point for assigned sites, from pre-launch preparation through launch, early operations, and handoff.
- Turn the plan into action. Maintain site-level launch plans with clear milestones, dependencies, owners, and deadlines. Set daily priorities, run focused check-ins, and follow commitments through to completion.
- Bring teams together. Align infrastructure, permitting, regulatory, flight operations, maintenance, commercial, community engagement, and partner teams around the launch plan. Resolve gaps between workstreams so critical tasks do not fall between teams.
- Verify readiness firsthand. Walk the site, validate reported progress with functional owners, and confirm site, equipment, staffing, partner, and operational readiness against required gates. Confirm required checks and approvals are complete before launch; do not trade safety for schedule.
- Manage risks and resolve blockers. Identify risks early, assess their impact, and drive mitigations with the responsible teams. Resolve issues within your scope; escalate safety concerns immediately and larger tradeoffs early, with clear facts, options, and a recommendation.
- Report a clear picture from the field. Provide concise, accurate updates on what is ready, what has changed, what is blocked, the schedule impact, and which decisions or help are needed. Keep site plans, trackers, and launch records current.
- Complete a clear operational handoff. Stay engaged through early operations, confirm the receiving team has the information it needs, and ensure remaining actions have agreed owners and deadlines.
- Make the next launch better. Apply standard playbooks, readiness checklists, and reporting tools. Capture field learnings and recommend practical improvements that make launches safer, smoother, and more repeatable.

## What You'll Bring

- Typically 3–7 years of relevant experience in field operations, deployment, logistics, project coordination, or physical-site launches, or equivalent hands-on experience.
- Experience owning a project, rollout, or operational workstream through completion in an environment with multiple teams and time-sensitive dependencies.
- Sound judgment and autonomy: you can prioritize, make decisions within your scope, and recognize when an issue needs escalation rather than improvisation.
- Ability to lead without formal authority, build trust with field teams and partners, and hold others accountable constructively.
- Clear written and verbal communication, including concise status updates that distinguish confirmed facts from assumptions and make the next action obvious.
- Strong organization, attention to detail, and follow-through, with the composure to adapt when plans change.
- Comfort working on-site and traveling frequently to U.S. launch locations. Approximately 50% travel is expected.
- Experience with physical infrastructure, construction, or real estate is helpful, but not required.

What Else You Need To Know

The starting cash range for this role is $125,00 - $175,000; please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. We are always open to negotiation. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; overtime pay; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

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)

## Other roles at Zipline 

- [Hardware Test Technician, Avionics](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-test-technician-avionics-zipline-south-san-francisco-p5cvzv7pwjqv) — South San Francisco, CA
- [PLM & Configuration Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/plm-configuration-manager-zipline-south-san-francisco-pm2st8m7ej2v) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Mobile Test Site Project Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/mobile-test-site-project-manager-zipline-esparto-eajf10eqkn5h) — Esparto, CA / Half Moon Bay, CA / South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manufacturing-engineer-zipline-south-san-francisco-e0phbz4e2rk4) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer - Long Range Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-long-range-platform-zipline-south-san-francisco-aj84gq64gvsh) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Towers](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-towers-zipline-south-san-francisco-21pe6rqvm5ky) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Dropbox](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-dropbox-zipline-south-san-francisco-h830ctztcqtc) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Avionics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-avionics-zipline-south-san-francisco-911tt0ycfrvx) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Power Electronics Engineer - Ground Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-power-electronics-engineer-ground-systems-zipline-south-san-francisco-37x2bvp3esqk) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Ground Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-ground-systems-zipline-south-san-francisco-ca3ct8d8pz0g) — South San Francisco, CA