Head of Public Affairs

About You and The Role 

As Zipline’s Head of Public Affairs, you will build and lead a new function that is critical to our ability to launch, scale, build and maintainearn lasting trust in the communities we serve. You will mature our community acceptance and engagement capability into a powerful business driver that anticipates challenges, builds durable relationships, cultivates advocates, defends against headwinds, and advances Zipline’s growth goals.

Reporting to Zipline’s Chief Legal Officer, you will be accountable for building community love and excitement by evangelizing Zipline’s value and benefits, accelerating market entry and growth, reducing community friction, and preparing the company to prevail in high-stakes public debates. You will work across local communities, customersusers and merchants, first responders, civic leaders, influential organizations, key stakeholders and aligned interest groups—while partnering closely with Government Affairs, Communications, Commercial teams in market, and other community-facing functions.

Your key responsibilities will be to:

• Build and lead Zipline’s Public Affairs function, including the strategy, operating model, team, tools, budget, and scalable playbooks needed to support rapid growth.
• Map the stakeholder landscape in every priority market, identify the people and organizations that shape public opinion and political outcomes, and develop plans to build trust, address concerns, and cultivate champions.
• Create enduring relationships with community members, customersusers and merchants, first responders, civic and business leaders, schools, healthcare organizations, faith-based groups, workforce organizations, and other influential institutions and voices..
• Build strategic grassroots, grasstops, and third-party advocacy networks, and activate merchant and user champions, to demonstrate Zipline’s community value, support market launches, and mobilize when the company faces opposition or controversy.
• Create scalable systems to receive, respond to, analyze, and learn from community concerns and turn those insights into operational, product, and messaging improvements.
• Partner closely with Government Affairs and Communications to win government and public support.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Commercial teams, Customer Experience, Operations, Systems Engineering, Product, and Legal to align strategy, evidence, messaging, and execution.

This role is based in our South San Francisco office and includes travel to Zipline markets and communities across the U.S. and, as needed, internationally.

What You'll Do

• Design and execute a comprehensive Public Affairs strategy that enables Zipline to enter new markets, scale responsibly, and maintain a durable license to operate.
• Build and mature the function, including hiring and developing a high-performing team and establishing clear goals, metrics, processes, budgets, and decision rights.
• Develop detailed stakeholder maps for priority markets and maintain a disciplined relationship-management program for the most influential local voices, advocates, potential opponents, and partner organizations.
• Build strong relationships and trust with key community members through sustained neighborhood outreach, community events, homeowner association engagement, advisory groups, town halls, site visits, and other locally appropriate programs.
• Develop and maintain networks of credible advocates, including users and merchants, first responders, business and civic leaders, former public officials, academics, faith leaders, healthcare organizations, environmental and road-safety groups, workforce organizations, and other aligned third parties.
• Create programs that turn positive customeruser, merchant, partner, and community experiences into testimonials, endorsements, data, and stories that demonstrate Zipline’s value and support public advocacy.
• Build a scalable community issue-management system that enables prompt, thoughtful responses to complaints; tracks issues by market and category; detects patterns; supports issue resolution; measures resolution; and identifies opportunities to reduce future concerns.
• Prepare and execute public campaigns and rapid-response efforts when needed, including mobilizing supporters as neededfor hearings, public comments, letters of support, petitions, community endorsements, coalition statements, and other lawful advocacy activities.
• Partner closely with Government Affairs to support public-policy, zoning, land-use, and permitting objectives. Government Affairs will own relationships with elected officials, government bodies, and public agencies; Public Affairs will build the community and third-party support needed to advance shared goals.
• Serve as a key internal voice for community acceptance, ensuring that feedback about safety, privacy, acoustics, environmental impacts, and other concerns informs product priorities, operational decisions, launch sequencing, market-growth plans, and—where useful—tools that make it easier for users to provide feedback or advocate for the service.
• Work with Systems Engineering, Safety, Product, Hardware, Autonomy, and other technical teams to develop accurate, accessible evidence and capabilities needed for public engagement, including safety, acoustics, privacy, environmental, and operational data.
• Develop research, surveys, third-party validation, and other credible evidence that strengthens Zipline’s public positions and enables the company to communicate truthfully and persuasively.
• Partner with Communications and Marketing to create consistent messaging, public-facing collateral, community education, proactive storytelling, events, and crisis-response narratives across the issues most important to acceptance of Zipline’s service.
• Establish and report clear measures of success, including stakeholder coverage and relationship strength, advocate development, issue-response performance, support for permitting and launches, community sentiment, and the avoidance or successful resolution of public opposition.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of experience in public affairs, community engagement, grassroots advocacy, coalition building, campaigns, or a closely related field, including significant leadership responsibility.
• A track record of helping a company launch or scale a new consumer-facing technology, service, or business model amid regulatory, incumbent, or community opposition.
• Demonstrated experience building a public affairs or community-engagement capability from the ground up, including strategy, team design, operating processes, measurement, and execution.
• Deep experience navigating complex local stakeholder environments and building trusted relationships across communities, civic organizations, business groups, advocacy organizations, and other influential third parties.
• Proven ability to develop grassroots and grasstops advocates, build coalitions, and mobilize credible supporters during permitting processes, public hearings, campaigns, protests, or other high-stakes public debates.
• Strong judgment in responding to community complaints and public controversy, with the ability to move quickly without sacrificing accuracy, empathy, or long-term trust.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technology and technical evidence into clear, credible messages for varied audiences.
• A rigorous, analytical approach to stakeholder management, issue tracking, research, data, and measurement—not just events and relationship building.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and experience influencing Product, Engineering, Operations, Communications, Marketing, Government Affairs, Legal, Safety, and executive teams without relying solely on formal authority.
• Strategic and hands-on: able to set the long-term direction, build scalable systems, personally develop critical relationships, and execute in fast-moving or contentious situations.
• Excitement for Zipline’s mission and the ability to communicate the practical benefits of our service with authenticity, credibility, and conviction.
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently to build relationships and lead public affairs work in the communities Zipline serves and plans to serve.
• Bonus points for experience in autonomy, robotics, aviation, transportation, logistics, infrastructure, mobility, or another highly regulated or operationally complex industry.

What Else You Need To Know

The starting cash range for this role is $230,000-$270,000. Please note that this is a target starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash payment for this role will depend on various factors, including a specific candidate’s experience, qualifications, skills, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may 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, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

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!