Head of Weather Systems

Job overview

The Head of Weather Systems role is onsite in South San Francisco, CA, with a starting cash range of $185,000 to $255,000. Zipline operates an autonomous drone delivery service carrying critical supplies, including medicine, food, and other essential goods. The role owns the development and operational performance of the automated weather intelligence and risk system that informs mission go/no-go decisions. It translates meteorological uncertainty into operational limits, validates models and system changes, and leads cross-functional work to improve safety, reliability, and delivery throughput.

What you'll do

• Own end-to-end development and operational performance of the automated weather intelligence and risk system
• translate meteorological uncertainty into testable operational limits and automated decision logic
• set and measure system performance targets
• lead validation using simulation, historical log replay, flight tests, and live operations
• document trade-offs, failure modes, and rollback criteria
• coordinate with Flight Operations, Safety, Flight Sciences, Simulation, Field Sites, and Engineering
• drive the roadmap for sensing, data ingestion, model tooling, and runtime decision services
• hire, mentor, and manage a small technical team or partner with an engineering manager
• participate in an on-call and incident rotation and lead post-incident reviews.

What we're looking for

Skills & competencies

weather systems

weather intelligence

south san francisco ca

zipline

meteorology

aviation weather

autonomous logistics

decision systems

scientific python

streaming systems

flight operations

on-call rotation

$185,000-$255,000/year

international travel

Work arrangement

• Weekend coverage required

Why this role

Owner-level technical and product leadership for weather-driven mission decisions across Zipline's operational regions; the role includes an on-call and incident rotation.

About the employer

Zipline is hiring for this role. Industry: All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services. Sector: 54.