Flyzipline

Flyzipline

Simulation Engineer - Avionics

South San Francisco, California, USA

Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 1 day ago
PythonMATLABLogisticsANSYSThermal AnalysisPCB DesignAvionicsEMI/EMCRoboticsElectrical EngineeringHardware DesignPower ElectronicsCOMSOLCommunicationTolerance Analysis

About the role

  • About Zipline Zipline is the world's largest and most experienced drone delivery service.
  • 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.
  • The drone is only 15% of what we've built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations.

Responsibilities

  • Own the simulation strategy for electronic modules and electromechanical assemblies throughout concept development, design, validation, production ramp, and field support.
  • Develop structural finite element models for electronics housings, PCB assemblies, brackets, connectors, flex circuits, fasteners, heat sinks, shields, and integrated avionics modules.
  • Perform static structural analyses including contact mechanics, bolt preload, fastener retention, housing deformation, sealing interfaces, component stresses, and structural load paths.
  • Perform dynamic analyses including modal, harmonic response, random vibration, shock, and fatigue to evaluate durability throughout transportation, manufacturing, and flight environments.
  • Develop thermal simulations for electronics cooling using conduction, convection, and radiation to ensure components remain within operating limits during all mission phases.
  • Support development of cooling architectures including blowers, ducts, heat sinks, vapor chambers, thermal interface materials, cold plates, and enclosure ventilation.
  • Perform coupled structural and thermal analyses to understand interactions between temperature, deformation, preload loss, contact pressure, and structural stiffness.
  • Build simplified analytical models and hand calculations to verify simulation assumptions and establish design intuition before developing detailed numerical models.
  • Support design reviews by identifying mechanical, thermal, and reliability risks before hardware release.
  • Work directly with suppliers to obtain material, validate manufacturing assumptions, and evaluate production variation within simulation models.

Nice to have

  • Experience with optical simulations for imaging systems, sensors, illumination systems, or optomechanical assemblies using Zemax, FRED, LightTools, TracePro, or similar tools.
  • Experience supporting RF hardware development through structural and thermal analyses of antenna, communication, or wireless electronic systems.
  • Experience performing three-dimensional dimensional tolerance analysis using CETOL, 3DCS, VisVSA, or equivalent tools.
  • Experience predicting PCB reliability, solder fatigue, connector durability, and electronic package reliability.
  • Experience with high-volume consumer electronics, automotive, aerospace, robotics, or unmanned aircraft systems.
  • What Success Looks Like
  • Structural and thermal simulations consistently predict hardware behavior with strong correlation to laboratory and environmental testing.
  • Electronic modules meet structural, vibration, thermal, reliability, mass, and packaging requirements before production tooling is released.
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This listing is sourced directly from Flyzipline's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.