Zipline

Technical Program Manager, Cloud, Data & Validation Platforms

South San Francisco, California, USA Full Time

About Zipline

Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart, to enabling healthcare providers to bring care directly to U.S. homes, we are transforming the way things move for businesses, governments and consumers. The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it.
 
Through our technology that includes robotics and autonomy, we are decarbonizing delivery, decreasing road congestion, and reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access to billions of people and building a more resilient global supply chain.
 
Join Zipline and help us to make good on our promise to build an equitable and more resilient global supply chain for billions of people.

 

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 the platforms that power iteration speed and fleet scale: cloud/on-prem infrastructure, data pipelines and artifacts, CI/CD and developer productivity, simulation, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation. Your programs may range from onboard logging and data ingestion to large-scale load testing, build system modernization, and raising the fidelity/throughput of our validation environments. You’ll partner closely with infrastructure, data, autonomy, validation, and security teams to keep the engine of velocity running.

What You’ll Do

  • Own execution for platform programs: Define program goals, sequence priorities across cloud/on-prem, data platforms, CI/CD, sim, and HIL — and align with company objectives.
  • Drive cross-functional execution: Coordinate with infra, data, autonomy, validation and product to deliver reliable pipelines, robust environments, and measurable reliability and performance targets.
  • Measure and improve engineering velocity: Reduce build/test cycle times, improve data freshness and reliability, and increase simulation/HIL throughput and representativeness.
  • Engage across the full lifecycle: From platform architecture and security reviews through rollout plans, migration/change management, and operational handoffs.
  • Facilitate strategic decision-making: Lead tradeoff discussions on performance/cost/reliability, on-prem vs. cloud, and “build vs. buy” for tooling.
  • Communicate program progress: Provide crisp visibility on timelines, risks, and outcomes to leadership and partner teams.
  • Build and evolve program processes: Define metrics, run postmortems and retros, and harden roadmaps that scale with the fleet.

What You’ll Bring

  • Over 6 years of experience in technical program management (or equivalent) leading platform, data, or infrastructure initiatives serving multiple engineering teams.  Experience as a Software Engineer working on the above is a strong plus.
  • Strong understanding of modern software lifecycles, CI/CD, and developer workflow best practices.
  • Proven ability to drive complex cross-team deliveries with clear prioritization, sequencing, and risk management.
  • Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence outcomes across diverse technical stakeholders.
  • Analytical, data-driven approach; comfortable defining and improving key metrics, including build times, data latency, and environment reliability and availability targets.
  • Adaptability and resilience; experience introducing and scaling new processes and platforms.
  • Familiarity with telemetry/log pipelines, distributed systems, cost/performance tradeoffs in mixed cloud/on-prem, simulation/HIL environments, and safety-critical software.

 

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!