Senior/Staff Technical Program Manager, Manufacturing Strategy & Operations
Lead manufacturing strategy and operations for Zipline’s autonomous drone delivery system, scaling production capacity and factory footprint while driving cross-functional initiatives to improve quality, yield, and efficiency.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- South San Francisco, California, USA
- Work setup
- Onsite
- Seniority
- Staff
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 7+ years
- Category
- Project management
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 7+ years of experience in technical program management, manufacturing strategy, business operations, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, or a related field.
- Experience in a complex hardware, manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, robotics, medical-device, or similarly technical environment.
- Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems and translate quantitative and qualitative analysis into clear recommendations.
- Experience developing capacity plans, labor models, operational strategies, organizational plans, or business cases.
- Strong understanding of manufacturing concepts such as capacity, takt time, throughput, yield, labor utilization, equipment constraints, and production readiness.
- Experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives through implementation and measurable results.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including executive-level presentations and decision documents.
- Advanced proficiency with Excel or Google Sheets.
- Ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional partners without direct authority.
- Work in a factory environment - onsite role.
Nice to have
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, industrial/systems engineering, operations, business, economics, or a related field.
- Experience supporting a major production ramp, factory expansion, or rapidly scaling organization.
- Experience in a chief-of-staff, strategy and operations, or business operations role within a technical organization.
- Experience with headcount planning, organizational design, budgeting, capital planning, or financial modeling.
- Familiarity with Lean Manufacturing or other high-rate manufacturing systems.
Full 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
Zipline’s Integration, Quality, Production, and Manufacturing Engineering organization turns complex hardware designs into safe, high-quality products that can be manufactured reliably at scale.
As the Senior/Staff Technical Program Manager for Manufacturing Strategy & Operations, you will serve as a strategic partner to the Director and leadership team. You will translate manufacturing goals into clear strategies, analytical decisions, operating plans, and cross-functional execution.
The organization is entering a period of significant growth in production capacity, factory footprint, organizational complexity, and team scope. You will help guide that growth by developing capacity and labor plans, leading strategic analyses, improving executive communication, and driving high-priority projects from concept through implementation.
This is not a traditional program coordination role. You will independently structure ambiguous problems, build rigorous analyses, develop recommendations, and help leaders make faster, better-informed decisions.
What You'll Do Develop Manufacturing Strategy
- Build manufacturing growth plans that connect production demand, factory capacity, labor, equipment, facilities, quality, and organizational capabilities.