Senior Electrical Engineer - Avionics (RF)

Company: Zipline
Location: South San Francisco
Posted on: April 2, 2026

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 The Avionics team is a group of hardware and software experts responsible for designing robust systems that control our life-saving drone delivery service in some of the toughest environments on Earth. Our team designs aircraft avionics that must excel in a wide range of harsh, real-world climates and electromagnetic interference (EMI) environments. The Avionics system is a vital part of the overall zipline aircraft system architecture, where we strive to achieve high performance and reliability while minimizing mass and cost. You and your team will be responsible for delivering high performance communication and navigation systems that are tightly integrated into the Avionics flight computer. These radio systems are at the core of a new unmanned aerial system that will enable Zipline’s impact to expand from 100,000 deliveries/year to 100 million across the globe. Zipline’s future success depends on the development of avionics systems that are low mass, low cost, high reliability, and produced at high volumes. Rigorous design engineering and validation is required, as well as ingenuity in approaches to packaging, integration, fault tolerance, and validation. We are looking for a leader with a strong foundation in RF system design and an excellent grasp of communication system design, RF electronics, and antenna design. What You'll Do Join a small but mighty team of RF engineers owning RF communications at Zipline. This includes Zip to Zip, Zip to Dock, Zip to Droid, and Zip to GA Aircraft. Today, we use tightly integrated 802.11, cellular, ADS-B, and GNSS radio systems. Develop and implement RF engineering processes to ensure high quality on tight, deterministic timelines. Provide technical leadership in system level design spanning RF link budgets, interference analysis, and RF MAC layer. Define, trade, revisit, and update vehicle RF architecture. Optimize at the integrated vehicle and fleet system levels. Design radios, amplifiers, filters, and antennas to meet RF architecture and requirements. Develop confirmation tests, including functional, end of line, and system level tests to ensure the RF systems meet all the necessary specifications. Coordinate regulatory and industry certification for domestic and international markets. Coordinate within the Avionics and Ground Systems teams to implement the RF systems in the aircraft highly integrated flight computer as well as the Zip Dock. Coordinate across teams such as GNC, Aero, and Perception to determine requirements for the RF system performance, identify trades, and ensure reliable operation for downstream systems. Ongoing engineering to successfully sustain the operation of existing avionics systems in our existing fleet of thousands of aircraft. What You'll Bring Demonstrated skill building and leading a team of engineers to achieve ambitious goals, with proven success 3-10 years of experience in RF engineering roles Past success developing electronics for critical systems in fields such as automotive, aerospace, transportation, or medical devices. Deep design experience in one or more of the following areas: RF system design and analysis, antenna design, or practical implementation of complex RF systems. Strong understanding of communication system fundamentals including linear systems, signal processing, and communication theory. Familiarity with RF design tools such as ADS, CST, Microwave Office, MATLAB, or Simulink. Enthusiasm for collaborating in a fast paced, cross-functional environment. Clear communication skills and the ability to explain technical challenges and solutions to fellow engineers and non-engineers alike. Bachelors and/or Masters degree in Electrical Engineering, with focus on RF Comms and Design Must be eligible to work in the US. Must be able to work in person at Zipline’s South San Francisco office. What Else You Need to Know The starting cash range for this role is $160,000 - $200,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. 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; 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, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies. 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!

Keywords: Zipline, Elk Grove , Senior Electrical Engineer - Avionics (RF), Engineering , South San Francisco, California