Senior Fixture Design Engineer

About Zipline

Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart, to enabling healthcare providers to bring care directly to U.S. homes, we are transforming the way things move for businesses, governments and consumers. The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it. Through our technology that includes robotics and autonomy, we are decarbonizing delivery, decreasing road congestion, and reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access to billions of people and building a more resilient global supply chain.

About You and The Role

Are you energized by the challenge of building and scaling complex electro-mechanical systems—everything from cutting-edge tooling and fixtures to robust, production-ready equipment? Do you light up when faced with problems others write off as unsolvable? Are you the engineer people count on to turn impossible ideas into real-world solutions?

At Zipline, we don’t build for the lab—we build for life. Real people depend on what we deliver every single day, so there’s no room for compromise. If you’re eager to channel your engineering skills into designing and refining the tools that power next-gen manufacturing, you might be exactly who we’re looking for.

We’re on the hunt for a seasoned Senior Fixture Design Engineer who’s ready to take ownership of the fixtures, jigs, and tooling that bring our aircraft products to life. In this role, you’ll lead the design and deployment of essential fixtures and equipment for our zips, droids, docks, and feeder sub-assemblies—ensuring we can scale from small-batch production to high-volume output without sacrificing precision or efficiency. You’ll be the driving force behind tools that lower costs, boost quality, and prepare us for the demands of the future. If you’re ready to juggle multiple complex fixtures/equipment and make a real impact, let’s talk.

What You'll Do:

As a Senior Fixture Design Engineer, you will serve as a key contributor to the advancement of our in-house manufacturing capabilities. Your primary responsibility will be to design, develop, and refine the fixtures, jigs, and tooling required to support both ongoing design modifications and the introduction of new internal production lines. With a deep understanding of manufacturing processes, you will ensure that all fixture designs align with technical requirements and consistently deliver high performance across the production floor.

This position is inherently cross-functional, requiring close collaboration with a broad range of teams, including design engineering, supplier industrial engineering, operations program management, quality, maintenance, and frontline manufacturing personnel. As the technical lead for fixture and equipment design, you will take full ownership of the design, validation, and fabrication lifecycle, driving continuous improvements that elevate production reliability, cost-efficiency, and scalability.

You are a highly skilled and experienced engineer with a demonstrated history of delivering innovative fixture solutions from prototype phases through to mature, high-throughput production environments. Your ability to anticipate failure modes, engineer robust preventive or diagnostic features, and deliver pragmatic, data-informed improvements distinguishes your approach. You consistently design for useability and maintainability, with a practical understanding of factory floor realities.

In addition to your technical expertise, you are a trusted mentor who supports the development of junior engineers, reviews design work with a critical but constructive eye, and shares best practices that strengthen the broader team. Your leadership in the fixture design domain ensures that Zipline’s manufacturing infrastructure remains robust, adaptive, and positioned for sustained growth.

What You'll Do  

• Lead the end-to-end design and development of manufacturing fixtures, tooling, and equipment to support internal production lines and product design updates, ensuring reliability and scalability from 10s to 100s of units per week.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with design engineers, manufacturing engineers, quality, maintenance, and operations managers to ensure fixture solutions align with product and process requirements.
• Own the fixture development lifecycle, including concept design, CAD modeling, detailed drawings, validation, and transition to production.
• Support new product introductions by designing fixtures that enable efficient prototyping, pilot builds, and scalable high-volume production.
• Ensure useability, manufacturability, and maintainability of fixtures through thoughtful design practices and close coordination with fabrication and assembly teams.
• Conduct fixture validation testing to confirm alignment with performance specifications
• Continuously improve existing tooling by identifying inefficiencies, implementing upgrades, and reducing cycle times, costs, and quality defects.
• Apply root cause analysis and problem-solving methodologies to address fixture-related production issues and proactively prevent recurrence.
• Document and maintain design standards, best practices, and technical specifications to ensure consistency across the organization.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical guidance, design reviews, and feedback to elevate team competency and execution quality.

What You'll Bring 

• 7+ years of experience designing and developing custom manufacturing fixtures, jigs, and tooling in a high-precision, electro-mechanical production environment.
• Proven track record supporting the scaling of production lines from prototype to full-rate manufacturing, including experience ramping from low to high volume (e.g., 10s to 100s of units per week).
• Extensive CAD expertise (e.g., SolidWorks, NX, or equivalent) for fixture and tooling design, including proficiency with complex assemblies and detailed 2D drawings. (Siemens NX preferred)
• Experience working closely with cross-functional teams (manufacturing, quality, design, maintenance, and operations) to define fixture requirements and integrate solutions seamlessly into production lines.
• Demonstrated ability to design for useability, manufacturability, and maintainability, with a strong understanding of fabrication processes and GD&T
• Familiarity with validation and testing methods for fixtures and tooling, including alignment checks, tolerance stack-ups, and operator safety verification.
• Strong capability in root cause analysis and failure mode mitigation within production tooling environments.
• Experience managing external suppliers and fabrication vendors, including design handoff, RFQs, DFM reviews, and quality assurance during tool builds.
• Experience mentoring or leading junior engineers and providing technical guidance in tooling and manufacturing best practices.

What Else You Need to Know

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!

If you’d like to learn more about Zipline and our teams, feel free to check out our Instagram, one of our Reddit AMA’s, or our website!