Lead, Avionics Technician

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 builds and operates autonomous delivery systems that move critical goods reliably and safely. The Avionics team develops and supports the electronics, sensors, communications hardware, wiring, and electromechanical assemblies used across our aircraft, droids, and ground systems. As Lead of Avionics Technicians, you will build and lead the technician team responsible for prototype assembly, rework, integration, testing, and troubleshooting. You will hire and develop technicians, plan team capacity, establish technical standards, and ensure engineering programs receive high-quality hardware on schedule. This is a hands-on people-management role. You will be accountable for the team’s performance while remaining close enough to the work to resolve difficult technical problems, improve processes, and set the standard for disciplined execution. What You'll Do Build, manage, and develop a high-performing team of avionics technicians. Hire technicians with the right mix of electronics assembly, rework, integration, test, and troubleshooting skills. Set clear responsibilities, priorities, performance expectations, and development plans for each team member. Plan technician staffing and capacity across prototype builds, engineering tests, qualification campaigns, failure investigations, and production support. Own daily execution and ensure work is completed safely, correctly, and on schedule. Establish standards for soldering, crimping, harness assembly, inspection, ESD controls, test execution, documentation, and configuration control. Develop training and certification programs that expand technician capability and create consistent workmanship across the team. Partner with Electrical, Mechanical, RF, Test, Reliability, Manufacturing, and program leads to anticipate demand and resolve execution constraints. Ensure drawings, work instructions, test procedures, and material kits are ready before work begins; drive improvements when documentation is incomplete. Lead escalations involving difficult builds, intermittent failures, test-equipment problems, or recurring workmanship issues. Develop metrics for build quality, throughput, rework, schedule adherence, equipment utilization, and technician capacity. Own lab readiness, including tools, test equipment, calibration, consumables, material flow, safety, and workspace organization. Support work at…