Mechanical Engineer, Camera & Optical Modules

About this role

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 that control lens-to-sensor focus, tilt, decenter, optical-axis orientation, stereo baseline, and camera-to-vehicle boresight.

• Develop tolerance models that connect component and assembly variation to image-quality and perception outcomes, 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 production.

• Integrate image sensors, lenses, filters, PCBAs, SerDes electronics, flex circuits, connectors, heaters, cleaning devices, and local sensors into robust modules.

• Design for rain, dust, mud, insects, condensation, fogging, icing, UV exposure, cleaning chemicals, and other contamination modes that can degrade optical performance.

• Evaluate hydrophobic and oleophobic coatings, protective windows, heaters, air-based cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, shutters, and other contamination-control approaches.

• Define EMI shielding, grounding, and bonding strategies across the housing, lens aperture, sensor PCB, flex, and connector interfaces. Ensure conductive features have intentional grounding and do not create resonant or floating structures.

• Perform first-principles analysis, hand calculations, tolerance analysis, structural FEA, thermal analysis, and vibration or fatigue assessments to establish design margins.

• Define and support mechanical, environmental, and image-quality testing across vibration, shock, thermal cycling, humidity, ingress, solar loading, contamination, and lifetime exposure.

• Lead investigations of prototype, production, and field failures. Identify root cause, implement corrective actions, and verify that recurrence rates decrease.

• Maintain clear interface-control documentation, design assumptions, analysis, validation evidence, and 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 fundamentals, including structural mechanics, thermal design, material selection, bolted joints, adhesive joints, sealing, vibration, fatigue, and tolerance analysis.

• Advanced CAD, GD&T, datum-strategy, drawing-release, and tolerance-stack skills.

• Practical understanding of camera and optical alignment concepts such as focus, tilt, decenter, boresight, field of view, stereo baseline, calibration stability, and image-quality sensitivity.

• Experience with relevant manufacturing processes such as precision machining, die casting, injection molding, stamping, optic

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