Technical Program Manager, Robotics

Company: Zipline
Location: South San Francisco
Posted on: April 1, 2026

Job Description:

About Zipline Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. 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. Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. About You and The Role You’re a force of nature — someone who thrives on bringing order to chaos, driving clarity where there’s ambiguity, and pushing complex, cross-functional efforts across the finish line. As part of Zipline’s Program Management team, you’ll own execution for a suite of high-impact initiatives across our autonomous flight software stack. Your programs may range from motion planning and controls to perception and navigation, plus the firmware and system integration that make it all work on real vehicles. You’ll partner closely with software leads and engineers, hardware, firmware teams, and flight test operations to sequence work, surface risks early, and keep execution sharp and aligned. You’ll be the connective tissue ensuring the pieces of Zipline’s most ambitious flight software come together on time and to our quality bar. What You'll Do Own execution for suite of high priority robotics programs: Define crisp program goals, sequence milestones across planning, controls, navigation, perception, and firmware, and align execution with company objectives. Drive cross-functional delivery: Coordinate with stakeholders across software, firmware, hardware, test ops, and safety to streamline workflows and land integrated flight capabilities. Improve development velocity: Track timelines and blockers, allocate scarce experts/hardware, and actively manage dependencies across stacks. Engage across the full lifecycle: From requirements and architecture reviews through sprint planning, bench/sim bring-up, flight test, and validation. Facilitate strategic decision-making: Bring the right people together to make calls on priorities, tradeoffs (safety/throughput/latency), and technical direction. Communicate program progress: Provide crisp visibility on timelines, risks, and outcomes to leadership and partner teams. What You'll Bring Minimum of 6 years of experience in technical program management (or equivalent) leading complex, multi-team software initiatives. Experience as a Software Engineer working on robotic systems is a strong plus! Proven ability to align roadmaps with company priorities and drive execution across multiple teams and dependencies. Excellent communication skills — able to translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences and influence decision-making. Demonstrated leadership in identifying/resolving risks, facilitating alignment, and creating momentum across teams. Analytical, data-driven approach to problem-solving and process improvement. Adaptability and resilience in dynamic environments; get up to speed quickly, and a track record of standing up new processes and scaling programs as teams grow. Familiarity with autonomous robotics systems (planning/controls/perception) and/or embedded/firmware integration. What Else You Need to Know The starting cash range for this role is $165,000 - $210,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; overtime pay; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more. Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies. We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

Keywords: Zipline, Manteca , Technical Program Manager, Robotics, Engineering , South San Francisco, California