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.
Every new Zipline site brings fast, reliable access to essential medical products closer to the people who need them. But a site is not ready simply because construction is complete. It is ready when the people are trained, the systems are tested, the approvals are secured, and the operation can deliver safely and reliably from its first flight onward.
We are hiring an Operations Readiness Program Manager to lead new Long Range Platform launches across Côte d’Ivoire. You will own country-level readiness for multiple concurrent site launches—making launch decisions, driving cross-functional alignment, and raising the operational bar so sites launch faster, safer, and scale reliably. This work directly enables Zipline’s mission to build an instant delivery system that delivers critical medical and commercial goods across hard-to-reach regions; your success reduces time-to-service, increases launch reliability, and ensures safe, certified flight operations in challenging field environments.
What You'll Do- Own operational readiness for Long Range Platform launches within a country, ensuring every site is prepared to launch safely, effectively, and operate successfully at scale.
- Manage readiness across multiple concurrent site launches, tracking dependencies, risks, milestones, and launch-critical deliverables through structured readiness reviews, risk assessments, and escalation mechanisms.
- Define and manage readiness milestones covering staffing, training, regulatory approvals, facility activation, community engagement, engineering readiness, equipment deployment, and launch support.
- Partner with Recruiting, Academy, and Country Leadership to ensure operational teams are hired, onboarded, trained, and prepared to meet launch timelines.
- Collaborate with Partnerships teams to support health facility onboarding, training, and launch readiness across new service areas.
- Coordinate with Supply Chain and Procurement teams to ensure all sites are equipped with the inventory, equipment, and materials required for launch.
- Partner with Construction and Engineering teams to ensure facilities, infrastructure, and Zipline systems are activated and ready to support first flight.
- Drive post-launch reviews and continuous improvement efforts that strengthen launch quality, operational readiness, and long-term site performance.
- 8+ years of experience in program management, operations, or deployment enablement in a complex, technical, or field-based environment.
- Experience managing complex cross-functional initiatives involving multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and aggressive timelines.
- Exceptional program management and organizational skills.
- Strong operational judgment and the ability to distinguish between activities being completed and true operational readiness.
- Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to create alignment and drive decisions across teams with competing priorities.
- Ability to build structure and create clarity in environments with incomplete information.
- High ownership, resilience, and persistence in fast-moving environments.
- Willingness to travel extensively and spend time in the field during launch and scale-up.
- Bilingual fluency in French and English, and authorization to work in Côte d'Ivoire.
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!
For 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.
As 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.
Skills Required
- 5+ years program management, field operations, or deployment experience in technical, regulated, or aviation-adjacent environments
- Direct site launch or activation experience
- Proven track record managing multi-stakeholder launches or rollouts with measurable outcomes (cite specific metrics)
- Ability to define go/no-go criteria, write acceptance tests, and enforce KPIs under schedule pressure
- Hands-on experience coordinating engineering, construction, supply chain, and training to achieve first operational use at field sites
- Experience validating power, communications, charging systems, aircraft, and ground equipment
- Strong escalation judgment and stakeholder management; present decision-ready summaries to country leadership
- Ability to operate in high-intensity field conditions and work irregular hours around critical milestones
- Willingness and ability to travel throughout Côte d'Ivoire (~20-30%, higher during launch windows)
- Bilingual fluency in French and English
- Authorization to work in Côte d'Ivoire
Zipline Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Zipline and has not been reviewed or approved by Zipline.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is consistently described as comprehensive and high quality, with multiple plan choices, low out‑of‑pocket costs, and additions like HRA, One Medical, and fertility support.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental and family leave is highlighted as generous and meaningfully used, reinforcing support for major life events.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off, sick days, and holidays are portrayed as solid and broadly available, contributing to overall benefits depth.
Zipline Insights
What We Do
Zipline is the world's largest autonomous delivery network and is powered entirely by fixed-wing drones. Our fleet circles the equivalent distance of the equator every 2.5 days, and we have shipped hundreds of thousands of critical medical products across Rwanda, Ghana, and now beginning in the United States.
Why Work With Us
Zipline is the perfect intersection of super cutting-edge tech, deep social mission, and extremely compelling business case. Our small, scrappy, customer-obsessed, humble, and mission-driven team has set the bar for what is possible in the drone logistics industry globally, and has designed some incredibly elegant technology in the process.
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