Failure Analysis Engineer

About You and The Role 

Zipline’s autonomous delivery systems depend on reliable avionics electronics, flex circuits, harnesses, and connectors operating through vibration, repeated motion, temperature cycling, moisture, and manufacturing variation.

As a Failure Analysis Engineer, you will investigate failures from fielded systems, development testing, life testing, and manufacturing. You will help reproduce failures, isolate electrical faults, inspect hardware, analyze data, and develop evidence-supported conclusions.

This is a hands-on role suited to an early-career engineer or highly technical hardware professional who enjoys working in the lab and wants to develop deeper expertise in electronics, materials, reliability, and physical failure analysis.

What You'll Do 

• Investigate failures involving flex circuits, rigid-flex assemblies, PCBAs, connectors, harnesses, solder joints, vias, and electronic components.
• Preserve failed hardware and collect relevant configuration, test, manufacturing, service, and field data.
• Reproduce intermittent failures under representative electrical, mechanical, thermal, and environmental conditions.
• Troubleshoot hardware using schematics, wiring diagrams, multimeters, oscilloscopes, power supplies, electronic loads, logic analyzers, thermal imaging, and protocol tools.
• Analyze telemetry, test logs, measurements, and inspection results to identify patterns and narrow possible causes.
• Perform hands-on inspection and support physical analysis using microscopy, X-ray, cross-sectioning, and other appropriate techniques.
• Develop and execute experiments that prove or disprove suspected failure mechanisms.
• Use structured methods such as fault trees, 5-Why, fishbone analysis, and 8D to separate symptoms from root cause.
• Work with Electrical, Mechanical, Test, Reliability, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supplier Engineering to review evidence and determine next steps.
• Support corrective actions involving product design, manufacturing processes, suppliers, inspection, diagnostics, and end-of-line testing.
• Verify that corrective actions address the original failure and do not introduce new risks.
• Write clear failure-analysis reports documenting the hardware configuration, evidence, methods, results, conclusions, and recommended next steps.
• Maintain a searchable record of failure symptoms, mechanisms, root causes, and validated fixes.
• Track investigation turnaround time, no-trouble-found rate, corrective-action status, recurrence, and field-failure reduction.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on technical experience.
• Hands-on comfort working with electronics, hardware assemblies, and laboratory equipment.
• Ability to read electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, PCB layouts, engineering drawings, and component datasheets.
• Strong troubleshooting fundamentals and a methodical approach to isolating ambiguous or intermittent failures.
• Experience using standard electrical test equipment such as multimeters, oscilloscopes, power supplies, and logic analyzers.
• Practical data-analysis skills using Python, MATLAB, JMP, SQL, or equivalent tools.
• Ability to organize data, identify trends, compare test populations, and communicate what the evidence does and does not support.
• Curiosity about how electronic, mechanical, material, manufacturing, and environmental factors interact.
• Clear technical writing and the ability to document assumptions, results, uncertainty, and next steps.
• Willingness to learn new laboratory, sample-preparation, inspection, and analysis methods.
• This role is based in South San Francisco and requires regular hands-on work in the laboratory.
• Occasional travel to suppliers, manufacturers, test facilities, and external analysis laboratories may be required.

Nice to Have

• Demonstrated experience in electronics failure analysis, hardware reliability, product engineering, hardware test, or high-reliability hardware debugging.
• Knowledge of flex and rigid-flex construction, PCB fabrication, SMT assembly, soldering, crimping, connectors, or electronics manufacturing.
• Experience with microscopy, X-ray, CT, cross-sectioning, SEM/EDS, dye-and-pry, or other physical FA techniques.
• Experience with vibration, shock, temperature cycling, humidity, bend cycling, or accelerated-life testing.
• Experience supporting corrective actions across design, manufacturing, quality, or supplier teams.
• Familiarity with high-speed interfaces, CAN, Ethernet, SerDes, cameras, RF, motor controls, or power electronics.
• Familiarity with IPC standards or structured processes such as FRACAS, CAPA, or 8D.
• Experience in aerospace, robotics, automotive, medical devices, or high-volume electronics.

What Success Looks Like

• Failures are reproduced and narrowed to an evidence-supported cause within an agreed turnaround time.
• Investigation reports are clear enough for another engineer or technician to understand and continue the work.
• Intermittent and no-trouble-found returns decrease as diagnostic methods improve.
• Findings result in better designs, manufacturing controls, inspections, and validation tests.
• The engineer steadily develops deeper ownership of increasingly complex failure investigations.

What Else You Need To Know

Zipline 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.

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!