Zipline International Inc.
Simulation Engineer - Avionics
South San Francisco, California, USA
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 2 days 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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