Senior Motor Test Engineer – Powertrain

Job overview

The Senior Motor Test Engineer – Powertrain role is onsite in South San Francisco, CA. The starting cash salary range is $130,000–$180,000 per year. Zipline operates an autonomous drone delivery system that delivers critical supplies, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. The engineer develops test evidence for electric propulsion and actuation hardware, connecting laboratory characterization to flight and field performance. The role owns performance and reliability test campaigns that inform design release, vehicle readiness, field reliability, model validation, and production-test decisions.

What you'll do

• Characterize BLDC motors, including losses, thermal coefficients, and demagnetization
• evaluate propulsion systems for thrust, efficiency, and thermal behavior
• test servo and motor-based actuators
• define test specifications for efficiency, thermal performance, torque-speed curves, cogging, back-EMF, and endurance
• analyze field failures and correlate them with test data
• characterize wear-out mechanisms
• develop methods to validate motor and structural models and FEA
• collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and firmware engineers
• develop production test strategies with manufacturing
• create automated test scripts and data-acquisition pipelines using Python or equivalent.

What we're looking for

Skills & competencies

senior motor test engineer

powertrain

south san francisco ca

zipline

full-time

$130k–$180k

electric motors

actuators

propulsion systems

reliability testing

python

drone delivery

data acquisition

Work arrangement

• Weekend coverage required

Benefits & perks

• Potential equity compensation, discretionary annual or performance bonuses, sales incentives, medical, dental, and vision insurance, and paid time off.

Why this role

Owns full performance and reliability test campaigns and connects lab results to flight and field performance; work informs vehicle readiness, design release, model validation, and production testing.

About the employer

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