Mechanical Engineer, Camera & Optical Modules

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 

Zipline builds and operates autonomous delivery systems that move critical goods reliably and safely. Cameras and optical modules provide critical perception inputs used by our aircraft and autonomous systems. Their mechanical design directly affects image quality, calibration stability, environmental robustness, electromagnetic compatibility, and ultimately the system’s ability to operate safely.

As a Mechanical Design Engineer for Camera and Optical Modules, you will own the mechanical architecture and detailed design of camera assemblies from early concept through validation, production ramp, and fleet operation. You will integrate image sensors, lenses, optical windows and filters, electronics, flexes, connectors, thermal paths, shielding, seals, and cleaning or contamination-control features into compact, lightweight, production-ready assemblies.

This is a hands-on individual-contributor role. You will work at the boundary of mechanical engineering, optics, electronics, perception, thermal design, and high-volume manufacturing. Your designs must preserve alignment and image quality through vibration, temperature cycling, shock, contamination, weather exposure, and years of field operation.

What You'll Do 

• Own end-to-end mechanical design for camera and optical assemblies, including requirements, architecture, concept selection, CAD, drawings, specifications, tolerance analysis, BOMs, and production release.
• Translate perception, optical, electrical, environmental, and aircraft-level requirements into measurable mechanical requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Establish datum, alignment, and calibration strategies to control lens-to-sensor focus, tilt, decenter, optical-axis orientation, stereo baseline, and camera-to-vehicle boresight.
• Develop tolerance models that correlate component and assembly variation with image quality and perception performance, including focus retention, modulation transfer, calibration accuracy, and field-of-view stability.
• Design lightweight housings, mounts, lens barrels, optical-window interfaces, thermal paths, shields, seals, vents, and connector interfaces for high-volume manufacturing.
• Integrate image sensors, lenses, filters, PCBAs, SerDes electronics, flex circuits, connectors, heaters, cleaning devices, and local sensors into robust camera modules.
• Design for environmental durability, including protection against rain, dust, mud, insects, condensation, fogging, icing, UV exposure, cleaning chemicals, and other contamination sources that affect optical performance.
• Evaluate contamination-control solutions, including hydrophobic and oleophobic coatings, protective windows, heaters, air-based cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, and shutters.
• Define EMI shielding, grounding, and bonding strategies across housings, lens apertures, sensor PCBs, flex circuits, and connector interfaces, ensuring intentional grounding without resonant or floating conductive structures.
• Perform first-principles analysis, hand calculations, tolerance analysis, structural FEA, thermal analysis, and vibration and fatigue assessments to establish robust design margins.
• Define and support mechanical, environmental, and image-quality validation testing, including vibration, shock, thermal cycling, humidity, ingress protection, solar loading, contamination, and lifetime exposure testing.
• Lead investigations into prototype, production, and field failures, identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and verify reduced recurrence rates.
• Maintain comprehensive interface control documentation, design assumptions, engineering analyses, validation evidence, and production release records.

What You'll Bring

• Experience designing camera modules, optical instruments, perception sensors, robotics hardware, automotive electronics, aerospace hardware, or similarly compact electromechanical products.
• Strong mechanical engineering fundamentals, including structural mechanics, thermal design, material selection, bolted joints, adhesive joints, sealing, vibration, fatigue, and tolerance analysis.
• Advanced proficiency in CAD, GD&T, datum strategy, engineering drawing release, and tolerance stack-up analysis.
• Practical understanding of camera and optical alignment concepts, including focus, tilt, decenter, boresight, field of view, stereo baseline, calibration stability, and image-quality sensitivity.
• Experience with manufacturing processes such as precision machining, die casting, injection molding, stamping, optical bonding, adhesive dispensing, coatings, and clean assembly.
• Proven track record of resolving complex mechanical, optical, thermal, or intermittent field failures through disciplined root-cause analysis.
• Experience collaborating directly with suppliers and manufacturing teams to improve yield, process capability, cost, and assembly repeatability.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including documenting engineering assumptions, residual risks, design margins, and production release recommendations.
• Ability to work onsite in South San Francisco with regular hands-on laboratory work.
• Willingness to travel to suppliers, manufacturers, and test locations as program needs dictate.
• Availability to provide occasional off-hours support during test campaigns, production ramps, or urgent field investigations.

Nice to Have 

• Experience with automotive, aerospace, drone, or robotic camera systems.
• Experience correlating mechanical variation with optical metrics such as MTF, distortion, focus, or calibration error.
• Experience with camera cleaning systems, optical coatings, condensation mitigation, or contamination detection.
• Familiarity with GMSL, MIPI, camera SerDes, local image processing, or high-speed camera interconnects.
• Experience designing EMI shielding and grounding solutions for camera modules and high-speed electronics.
• Experience developing mechanically stable stereo or multi-camera systems.
• Familiarity with automated optical alignment, calibration, and end-of-line image-quality testing.

What Success Looks Like

• Deliver camera modules that consistently meet image quality, calibration, thermal, mass, and environmental performance requirements across manufacturing variation and operational life.
• Ensure optical alignment and focus remain stable through vibration, shock, temperature cycling, contamination, and extended fleet use.
• Drive designs from development through production while achieving agreed-upon yield, cost, cycle time, and supplier capability targets.
• Develop cleaning and environmental protection features that measurably reduce obscured images, maintenance requirements, and camera-related aircraft downtime.
• Implement mechanical and EMI design improvements that reduce camera-related perception faults, GNSS desense risks, and field failures.
• Create scalable mechanical architectures that support future camera generations, sensor upgrades, and cost reductions without requiring complete redesigns.

What Else You Need To Know

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

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!