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.
We are looking for a hands-on Software Engineering Manager to lead the teams building Zipline’s G&A systems across Finance and People.
This role is responsible for building the software layer that allows Zipline’s business teams to move quickly, operate accurately, and scale without drowning in manual process. You will lead software engineers building custom applications for Finance, People, Recruiting, Legal, and other internal customers across G&A.
The majority of the work is building custom applications for internal teams: workflows, approval tools, operational systems, reporting surfaces, financial and people data products, and business process automation that fit how Zipline actually operates. You will also integrate with third-party systems where it makes sense, including accounting, HRIS, payroll, recruiting, identity, procurement, and other enterprise platforms.
The best candidates for this role are scrappy builders who understand enterprise complexity without being constrained by enterprise software playbooks. You should be comfortable leading a small team, shaping architecture, coaching engineers, writing code when needed, and working directly with business stakeholders to understand the real problem behind the stated request. You should also have financial and accounting expertise and understand how people and financial systems impact each other.
You will partner closely with Finance, People, Legal, Recruiting, IT, Security, Data, and Software Engineering to define the roadmap, challenge assumptions, and build systems that give Zipline leverage as we scale. We need someone who can make practical tradeoffs between custom software and third-party integrations, with a bias toward building when custom software creates strategic advantage.
What You’ll Do
- Lead a small team of software engineers responsible for Zipline’s G&A systems across Finance and People
- Build and evolve custom internal applications for Finance, People, Recruiting, Legal, Workplace, and other G&A teams
- Create software that improves business workflows, including approvals, intake, case management, onboarding, employee lifecycle operations, finance operations, reporting, and operational controls
- Partner with Finance to support billing, payments, procurement, close, auditability, controls, planning, accounting workflows, and integrations with financial systems
- Partner with People and Recruiting to improve hiring, onboarding, employee data, workforce planning, manager tooling, and employee lifecycle workflows
- Integrate cleanly with third-party systems where appropriate, including accounting, HRIS, payroll, recruiting, identity, procurement, expense, and reporting tools
- Define the technical architecture for systems that connect business workflows, operational data, financial data, people data, and enterprise platforms
- Work directly with internal customers to understand pain points, question requirements, and build tools that solve the underlying business problem
- Balance rapid iteration with long-term maintainability, data quality, security, access controls, auditability, and operational resilience
- Contribute hands-on technically through code, design reviews, architecture, debugging, and implementation where needed
- Develop engineers and create a high-ownership team culture that moves fast without creating a pile of enterprise spaghetti
What You’ll Bring
- Strong software engineering background, ideally as a senior engineer, tech lead, or hands-on engineering manager
- Experience leading software engineers while staying close to architecture and implementation
- Experience building custom internal tools, workflow systems, ERP-adjacent systems, financial systems, HR systems, or operational business applications
- Strong product mindset and ability to work directly with business stakeholders to define problems, outcomes, and roadmaps
- Ability to challenge requirements constructively and separate the real business need from the requested solution
- Strong systems thinking across business workflows, enterprise integrations, financial data, people data, access controls, and operational processes
- Practical judgment about when to build custom software and when to integrate with third-party platforms
- Comfort operating in ambiguity, building from first principles, and creating structure without waiting for perfect requirements
- Ability to move quickly while maintaining correctness in systems where accuracy, permissions, controls, and trust matter
- Strong communication skills with Finance, People, Legal, IT, Security, engineering, and leadership stakeholders
- High ownership, low ego, and a practical builder mindset
Bonus Points
- Experience building software for Finance and/or People/HR teams
- Experience with accounting, billing, payments, procurement, payroll, HRIS, ATS, identity, or ERP integrations
- Experience building workflow engines, approval systems, case management tools, internal portals, or operational dashboards
- Experience with access controls, audit trails, data governance, and systems used in regulated or control-heavy environments
- Experience in high-growth, operationally complex environments where software has to reflect messy real-world workflows
What Else You Need to Know
Skills Required
- Strong software engineering background, ideally as a senior engineer, tech lead, or hands-on engineering manager
- Experience leading software engineers while staying close to architecture and implementation
- Experience building custom internal tools, workflow systems, ERP-adjacent systems, financial systems, HR systems, or operational business applications
- Strong product mindset and ability to work directly with business stakeholders to define problems, outcomes, and roadmaps
- Ability to challenge requirements constructively and separate the real business need from the requested solution
- Strong systems thinking across business workflows, enterprise integrations, financial data, people data, access controls, and operational processes
- Practical judgment about when to build custom software and when to integrate with third-party platforms
- Comfort operating in ambiguity, building from first principles, and creating structure without perfect requirements
- Ability to move quickly while maintaining correctness in systems where accuracy, permissions, controls, and trust matter
- Strong communication skills with Finance, People, Legal, IT, Security, engineering, and leadership stakeholders
- High ownership, low ego, and a practical builder mindset
- Experience building software for Finance and/or People/HR teams
- Experience with accounting, billing, payments, procurement, payroll, HRIS, ATS, identity, or ERP integrations
- Experience building workflow engines, approval systems, case management tools, internal portals, or operational dashboards
- Experience with access controls, audit trails, data governance, and systems used in regulated or control-heavy environments
- Experience in high-growth, operationally complex environments where software must reflect messy real-world workflows
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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