Senior Staff / Manager - Ground Systems Design Execution

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Zipline is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer or Engineering Manager to lead the Design Execution team and turn site concepts into permit-ready and construction-ready design packages for our global drone logistics network. You’ll grow and guide a group of design managers who own site designs from concept through issue-for-permit and issue-for-construction, coordinating with internal stakeholders, external consultants, and construction feedback. Ideal candidates have 5-10+ years in design management for physical infrastructure, plus 3-5 years leading direct reports, with backgrounds in architecture, civil or structural engineering and hands-on permit drawing experience. To apply, quantify your impact with site counts, gates, and successful approvals, emphasize constructability reviews and cross-functional collaboration, and tailor your resume to Zipline’s fast moving, standards evolving environment. The role is onsite in South San Francisco with a starting range of 160K-225K plus bonus and benefits.

About this role

Zipline is looking for a Sr Staff Engineer or Engineering Manager  to lead the Design Execution team responsible for turning site concepts into permit-ready and construction-ready design packages for Zipline sites. This person will lead a group of design managers who own site designs from initial concept layout through issue-for-permit and issue-for-construction deliverables.

This role is for someone who has spent meaningful time managing design delivery for physical infrastructure: site layouts, civil design, structural coordination, electrical interfaces, permit drawings, consultant coordination, jurisdictional comments, utility engagement, application and co-ordination, construction document quality, and design changes during construction. The right candidate likely has around 10 years of relevant experience and has managed small teams of direct reports for at least three to five years.

You should bring professional grounding in architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, or a related design discipline. Strong candidates may come from design consultancies, owner-side design management roles, EV charging, commercial solar, distributed infrastructure, retail/site rollout, industrial facilities, or other companies that put repeatable physical infrastructure into the field.

What you'll do

• Lead the Design Execution function responsible for delivering site-specific charging-site designs from concept layout through issue-for-permit and issue-for-construction sets.
• Grow, manage and develop a team of design managers who coordinate internal stakeholders, external consultants, engineering disciplines, permitting requirements, and construction feedback.
• Build a predictable design delivery process with clear gates, drawing expectations, review cycles, permit-submission readiness, IFC readiness, and construction-support expectations.
• Own design execution quality across many concurrent sites, making sure drawings are complete, coordinated, buildable, permit-ready, and aligned with Zipline standards.
• Partner with Design Concepts and Standardization so execution teams have strong templates, basis-of-design documents, design guides, checklists, and repeatable details.
• Coordinate closely with Construction, Service Operations, Project Engineering, Launch, Real Estate, Legal, Finance, and external consultants to keep design packages aligned with site constraints, schedule, budget, permitting strategy, and construction reality.
• Establish mechanisms to catch design issues early, including constructability reviews, discipline coordination reviews, jurisdictional-risk reviews, and lessons-learned loops from the field.
• Manage consultant performance, including scopes of work, deliverable quality, timelines, communication, revision control, and design accountability.
• Help define role boundaries between design managers, project engineers, consultants, construction managers, and standards engineers so execution work moves quickly without unclear ownership.
• Build the team, tools, and operating cadence needed to support higher site volume across more markets.

What you'll bring

• 5-10+ years of experience in design management, architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, infrastructure design, site development, or a related physical-infrastructure design role.
• At least three to five years of experience managing small teams of direct reports, ideally design managers, architects, engineers, or technical project leads.
• Professional background in architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, or a related discipline. Licensure is helpful but not required if the operating experience is strong.
• Experience managing permit and construction drawing sets for physical infrastructure, including issue-for-permit and issue-for-construction deliverables.
• Experience working with external design consultants and internal cross-functional teams in an owner-side, consultancy, EV charging, solar, retail rollout, industrial, logistics, or distributed-site environment.
• Strong judgment on drawing quality, constructability, permitting risk, discipline coordination, scope boundaries, and when a design is ready to move forward.
• Ability to build process without slowing execution: design checklists, review gates, drawing standards, consultant scorecards, templates, and escalation routines.
• Clear communication with engineers, architects, construction managers, permitting partners, finance, legal, and operations stakeholders.
• Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment where standards are evolving, volume is increasing, and the design system needs to get better with every site.