{"id":3463071,"url":"https://alion.io/job/zipline-seniorstaff-technical-program-manager-manufacturing-strategy-operations","title":"Senior/Staff Technical Program Manager, Manufacturing Strategy & Operations","company":{"id":15878,"name":"Zipline","domain":"zipline.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/zipline","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":86,"open_postings":16,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.375,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":68,"computed_at":"2026-11-06T05:58:05Z"}},"role":"Product","role_family":"Product","seniority":"staff","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["South San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":118700,"max":240000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":240000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Google Sheets","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-05T15:39:22Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-22","last_verified_at":"2026-11-06T14:27:30Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":93,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":93},"description":"About Zipline\nZipline 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. \nOur 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.\nOur 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.\nWe 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.\nAbout You and The Role \nZipline’s Integration, Quality, Production, and Manufacturing Engineering organization turns complex hardware designs into safe, high-quality products that can be manufactured reliably at scale.\nAs the Senior/Staff Technical Program Manager for Manufacturing Strategy & Operations, you will serve as a strategic partner to the Director and leadership team. You will translate manufacturing goals into clear strategies, analytical decisions, operating plans, and cross-functional execution.\nThe organization is entering a period of significant growth in production capacity, factory footprint, organizational complexity, and team scope. You will help guide that growth by developing capacity and labor plans, leading strategic analyses, improving executive communication, and driving high-priority projects from concept through implementation.\nThis is not a traditional program coordination role. You will independently structure ambiguous problems, build rigorous analyses, develop recommendations, and help leaders make faster, better-informed decisions.\nWhat You'll Do \nDevelop Manufacturing Strategy\nBuild manufacturing growth plans that connect production demand, factory capacity, labor, equipment, facilities, quality, and organizational capabilities.\nTranslate production ramps into recommendations for facility footprint, shifts, hiring, training, equipment, and investment.\nDevelop scenario models that evaluate demand, productivity, yield, automation, outsourcing, cost, and schedule risk.\nSupport annual planning, headcount planning, budgeting, capital planning, and organizational design.\nEnable Leadership Decisions\nTurn complex operational questions into clear analyses, tradeoffs, and recommendations.\nDevelop business cases for major investments, organizational changes, and strategic initiatives.\nPrepare executive presentations, decision documents, operating reviews, and strategic communications.\nEstablish a consistent source of truth for performance, capacity, staffing, priorities, risks, and commitments.\nBuild the Operating System\nDesign operating rhythms that connect long-range strategy to weekly and monthly execution.\nEstablish metrics and dashboards across safety, quality, production, engineering, capacity, labor, cost, and schedule.\nCreate clear mechanisms for escalating decisions, assigning owners, and driving actions through closure.\nImprove communication between functional teams, organizational leadership, and senior executives.\nLead Strategic Programs\nOwn high-priority initiatives that span multiple teams or lack a clear functional owner.\nLead programs such as factory labor-model changes, organizational transformations, and productivity efforts.\nCoordinate across Production, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Integration, Supply Chain, Finance, People, Recruiting, Facilities, and Design Engineering.\nIdentify systemic blockers, drive cross-functional decisions, and ensure execution against agreed plans.\nIncrease Leadership Leverage\nServe as a trusted thought partner to the Director and leadership team.\nTranslate leadership discussions into clear strategies, decisions, communications, and action plans.\nMaintain continuity across meetings by tracking decisions, dependencies, and follow-through.\nIdentify recurring coordination work and build more scalable systems and ownership models.\nWhat You'll Bring\nRequired Qualifications\n7+ years of experience in technical program management, manufacturing strategy, business operations, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, or a related field.\nExperience in a complex hardware, manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, robotics, medical-device, or similarly technical environment.\nDemonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems and translate quantitative and qualitative analysis into clear recommendations.\nExperience developing capacity plans, labor models, operational strategies, organizational plans, or business cases.\nStrong understanding of manufacturing concepts such as capacity, takt time, throughput, yield, labor utilization, equipment constraints, and production readiness.\nExperience leading complex cross-functional initiatives through implementation and measurable results.\nExceptional written and verbal communication skills, including executive-level presentations and decision documents.\nAdvanced proficiency with Excel or Google Sheets.\nAbility to influence senior leaders and cross-functional partners without direct authority.\nWork in a factory environment - onsite role.\nPreferred Qualifications\nBachelor’s degree in engineering, industrial/systems engineering, operations, business, economics, or a related field.\nExperience supporting a major production ramp, factory expansion, or rapidly scaling organization.\nExperience in a chief-of-staff, strategy and operations, or business operations role within a technical organization.\nExperience with headcount planning, organizational design, budgeting, capital planning, or financial modeling.\nFamiliarity with Lean Manufacturing or other high-rate manufacturing systems.\nSuccess in the First 30/90/180 Days\nFirst 30 Days\nDevelop a strong understanding of the organization, production system, priorities, and scaling risks.\nBuild relationships with functional leaders and key cross-functional partners.\nTake ownership of core organizational communications and recurring operating reviews.\nFirst 90 Days\nEstablish a clear organizational scorecard and leadership operating cadence.\nDeliver an integrated manufacturing and labor scaling model.\nLead one high-priority strategic project from problem definition through an approved execution plan.\nFirst 180 Days\nDeliver a 12-24 month manufacturing and organizational strategy.\nEstablish reliable planning and communication systems that improve decision-making.\nExecute a major initiative that measurably improves capacity, productivity, cost, quality, or organizational readiness.\nWhat Else You Need To Know \nThe starting cash range for this role is $118,700 - $240,000. 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.\nZipline 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.\nWe 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!\nVoluntary Self-Identification\nFor government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.\nAs set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.","description_format":"text","description_chars":9251,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Drones & UAVs","Delivery","Logistics"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-29T14:36:18Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 63 · green card filings: 13","filings_12m":63,"filings_prev_12m":47,"green_card_filings_12m":13,"median_offered_wage_usd":170658,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":35,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.804,"p_room":0.44,"age_days":92,"expected_fill_days":68,"reasons":["conf:0","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-06T05:58:05Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":240000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/zipline-seniorstaff-technical-program-manager-manufacturing-strategy-operations","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/zipline-seniorstaff-technical-program-manager-manufacturing-strategy-operations.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-06T17:05:25Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":31842,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-07T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":15878},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=15878"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fzipline-seniorstaff-technical-program-manager-manufacturing-strategy-operations"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fzipline-seniorstaff-technical-program-manager-manufacturing-strategy-operations"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fzipline-seniorstaff-technical-program-manager-manufacturing-strategy-operations"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/zipline-seniorstaff-technical-program-manager-manufacturing-strategy-operations\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fzipline-seniorstaff-technical-program-manager-manufacturing-strategy-operations"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3463071}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"zipline.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3463071},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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