Jobs and Careers

HW Test Engineer, Battery and Power Electronics

South San Francisco, United Statesfull_timeVerifiedPosted 10 Aug 2026

💰 $180,000/yr($130,000/yr – $180,000/yr)

About the role

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 autonomous delivery aircraft and ground systems that operate daily in varying field conditions. You will develop the validation systems and test infrastructure that ensure battery and power electronics hardware is safe, reliable, manufacturable, and ready for deployment.

The Battery & Power Electronics team is responsible for delivering power throughout the aircraft—including batteries, power distribution systems, busbars, and power connectors. In this role, you'll design, build, automate, and operate the systems that validate these products throughout development, qualification, manufacturing, and field support.

This role is open to engineers at all levels. Scope and ownership grow with experience—from developing individual fixtures and executing validation tests to leading validation strategy, architecting complex test systems, and defining engineering standards across multiple programs.

What You'll Do

Own end-to-end delivery of validation systems from requirements → design → build → automation → execution → analysis → release → production support.

Typical Responsibilities

Design and build mechanical, electrical, and software-integrated test equipment for battery cells, battery packs, power electronics, busbars, and power distribution hardware.
Develop validation strategies covering functional, environmental, vibration, thermal, abuse, reliability, and durability testing for safety-critical power systems.
Design custom fixtures, instrumentation, wiring harnesses, power distribution systems, and data acquisition hardware capable of repeatable, high-throughput testing.
Develop automated test sequences, data collection, and analysis workflows that improve test repeatability, reduce operator effort, and accelerate engineering feedback.
Plan and execute battery characterization, DV&P/R, vibration, thermal cycling, shock, crash, fire mitigation, fatigue, ingress protection, and electrical validation campaigns.
Own test readiness reviews, equipment qualification, calibration strategy, operating procedures, and laboratory safety documentation.
Analyze failures using instrumentation, teardown inspections, root cause analysis, and statistical methods, partnering with design engineers to implement corrective actions.
Partner daily with Systems, Mechanical, Electrical, Software, Reliability, Manufacturing, Supplier Quality, Integration & Test, and Field Operations to translate engineering questions into efficient, data-driven validation plans.
Develop scalable test infrastructure supporting engineering development, manufacturing validation, supplier qualification, and fleet investigations.
Support supplier qualification, acceptance testing, and failure investigations for externally manufactured hardware.
Contribute to engineering standards, laboratory best practices, and continuous improvement initiatives. As scope increases, lead technical reviews, mentor teammates, and define validation strategy across multiple programs.