Senior / Staff Rotor Dynamics Engineer

Job overview

The Senior / Staff Rotor Dynamics Engineer role is onsite in South San Francisco, CA, with a starting annual salary range of $150,000–$215,000. Zipline operates an autonomous drone delivery service for food, medicine, and other essential goods. The engineer develops rotor and propeller loads and analyses to inform aircraft design, safety, and performance. The role works across engineering disciplines and uses testing and analysis to validate designs and support scalable delivery aircraft.

What you'll do

• Own propeller loads development
• perform structural-mode, forced-harmonic-vibration, and rotordynamics analyses
• define rotorcraft loads requirements
• build finite element models of propellers and powertrain components
• collaborate on propeller and rotor-blade design
• evaluate static strength and fatigue life
• execute propeller and aircraft testing from pre-test analysis through model correlation
• mentor colleagues and develop standardized tools and processes.

What we're looking for

Skills & competencies

senior / staff engineer

rotor dynamics

propellers

rotorcraft

aircraft loads

finite element analysis

flight testing

south san francisco ca

$150k–$215k

zipline

Work arrangement

• Weekend coverage required

Why this role

Hands-on design-test-analysis work, including wind tunnels, vibration testing, and flight testing; travel to field sites and test ranges is typically under 10%, depending on program phase.

About the employer

Zipline is hiring for this role. Industry: Engineering Services. Sector: 54.