Commercial Operations Maintenance Lead - Austin

Job Description

Job Description

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 the Role

As the Maintenance Lead, you will own the daily maintenance execution, ensuring high availability and operational readiness of fleet assets. You'll lead the local team of technicians, organize work, manage the return-to-service pipeline, and enforce rigorous shop floor standards.

Your leadership will directly drive maintenance turnaround time and technician productivity. This role requires a hands-on leader with a balance of technical expertise, operational discipline, and people management. You'll be accountable for aligning staffing to shifting operational demands while delivering on core KPIs around uptime, turnaround, and productivity.

What You'll Do

• Serve as Maintenance Technician, and Lead

• Lead and develop Maintenance Technicians and Shift Leads

• Deliver aircraft turnaround, uptime, and daily work execution

• Execute maintenance schedules and optimize shift coverage

• Managing backlog, return-to-service pipeline, and inspections

• Oversee aircraft receiving and conformity checks

• Enforce shop floor SOPs, productivity targets, and safety protocols

• Align staffing plans with operational needs and site growth targets

• [Test Only] Ensuring accurate documentation of Test Aircraft Modifications

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of experience in aviation maintenance, fleet operations, or related technical field leadership

• Proven track record managing maintenance teams in a fast-paced operational environment

• Strong knowledge of aviation maintenance standards, safety regulations, and audit compliance

• Demonstrated ability to manage work pipelines, optimize scheduling, and deliver uptime results

• Experience with backlog management, inspections, and return-to-service workflows

• Strong people leadership skills with a focus on coaching, training, and technician development

• Operational discipline with the ability to manage KPIs, implement SOPs, and enforce accountability

• Flexibility to support shift operations and adapt to a scaling environment

Success Metrics

• Aircraft downtime and first time fix rate

• Site uptime and turnaround performance

• Technician productivity, error rate, and training completion

• Shift effectiveness and escalation rate

• Return-to-service times and backlog closure

• Compliance with SOPs and audit readiness

• Technician staffing growth and coverage across shifts

What Else You Need To Know

Travel will vary based on launch, escalation, and field-support needs, but candidates should be comfortable spending significant time with teams in the field.

The starting cash range for this role is $110,000 - $125,000. 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 where applicable, discretionary annual or performance bonuses, sales incentives where applicable, benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance, paid time off, and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer.