Head of Weather Systems

About Zipline

Want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform how goods move. We aim 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.

About You and the Role

You sit at the center of informing Zipline on the critical environmental conditions our aircraft must fly in to hit business targets, while owning the automated system that operationally enforces those limits to ensure flight safety and protect an excellent, informed customer experience.

What You’ll Do

• Design and develop automated weather monitoring for real-time go/no-go decisions
• Define flyable weather requirements that align with automated risk performance
• Lead simulation- and real-world-based weather validation strategies
• Maintain clear communication with customer, fulfilment and flight ops teams on system uptime
• Drive scalable, cost-effective airborne and ground-sensing for risk calculations

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years’ industry experience and proven or ready people-leadership of a 3–5 person team
• Advanced scientific Python (Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, XArray, NETCDF)
• Fluency with geospatial and meteorological datasets, streaming platforms (Kafka), cloud-native tools (Kubernetes, AWS)
• Strong foundation in descriptive statistics, probability, linear algebra, ML techniques
• Ability to visualize and communicate complex weather uncertainty to broad audiences
• Deep meteorological/climatological knowledge and first-principles mindset
• Self-directed roadmap ownership, ruthless prioritisation and process improvement

Location & Travel

Based at South San Francisco HQ, five days on-site. Must be eligible to work in the US and travel globally as required.

Compensation

Target starting base salary USD 235k–255k per year, plus equity, bonus, comprehensive benefits and additional compensation components.

Zipline is an equal-opportunity employer. We encourage applications from under-represented groups—apply even if you don’t meet every requirement.