Mechanical Test Equipment Design Engineer, Crash Safety

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 & the Role Zipline builds autonomous delivery aircraft and ground systems that operate daily in demanding field environments.

Safe products begin with rigorous validation. As a Mechanical Test Equipment Design Engineer focused on Crash Safety, you will develop the custom equipment that enables engineers to evaluate structural integrity, crashworthiness, battery safety, and failure modes under extreme loading conditions. The Battery & Power Electronics team is responsible for ensuring our energy storage systems remain safe throughout their lifecycle—including impact, crush, abuse, vibration, thermal, and post-crash events.

You will design and build robust mechanical test equipment that reproduces these conditions safely, accurately, and repeatably, accelerating product development while generating the engineering evidence needed to make confident design decisions. This role is open to engineers at all levels.

Responsibilities

and technical scope will be matched to your experience and demonstrated ability, with opportunities to grow from owning individual fixtures and mechanisms to leading the architecture of complex validation systems and laboratory infrastructure.

What You'Ll Do

Own end-to-end development of crash safety equipment from

Requirements

→ concept → design → fabrication → commissioning → validation → continuous improvement . Design and develop custom mechanical test equipment supporting impact, crush, penetration, drop, abuse, fire, vibration, and structural testing of batteries and aircraft hardware. Design structural frames, fixtures, reaction structures, containment systems, mounting interfaces, and mechanisms capable of safely supporting high-energy testing.

Develop systems utilizing hydraulic, pneumatic, servo-electric, and mechanical actuation to apply controlled static and dynamic loading. Perform engineering analyses including hand calculations, tolerance stacks, bolted joint design, load path analysis, FEA, fatigue assessments, and failure mode evaluations to ensure equipment performance and operator safety. Produce CAD assemblies, detailed drawings, GD&T, bills of materials, and manufacturing documentation for fabricated and machined assemblies.

Design equipment with operator safety as a primary requirement, incorporating guarding, interlocks, energy isolation, debris containment, fire mitigation, and ergonomic considerations.