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Zipline

About Zipline

Zipline is a robotics employer hiring worker-facing roles such as Flight Test Operator, Amarillo, Drone Maintenance Technician, UAS Technician. Openings are collected from its current hiring board; location, employment terms and pay depend on the individual requisition.

$35–$45/hr

Typical pay, live

, RobotTraining.jobs shows 9 Zipline jobs open, typically paying $35 to $45 an hour (median $35).

Join Zipline (opens the job details)Working at Zipline

Live Zipline roles

Updated 4 Nov 2026, 06:01 UTC

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All 9 Zipline job postings, in full

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San Francisco Bay Area, CASouth San Francisco, CA

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Zipline jobs by country

Its open roles that accept applicants in each country.

USA · 8

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Is Zipline a good place to work?

Researched October 2026 · 24 sources

Mostly. Zipline is a well-funded drone delivery leader that hires its test flight crews as full-time employees with overtime, equity and benefits, but flight crews on Glassdoor cite long hours, weak career paths and poor work-life balance. The hours and the terms: test flight jobs expect weekend, night and overnight shifts outdoors, DropBox field tech jobs are six-month contracts with no promised conversion, and work-life balance is the lowest of Zipline's Glassdoor scores. It pays $35–$45/hr in most of its live listings (median $35/hr).

Actively hiring, pay independently measured from its live feed
Who is behind it

Zipline International Inc., a private drone delivery firm in South San Francisco, was founded in 2014 by CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton and others. It raised $600 million+) in January 2026 at a $7.6 billion) valuation; Bloomberg reported $20 billion) talks in September 2026. Revelio Labs estimates 2,255) staff. It has made 2 million+) deliveries in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and the US (Walmart is a client). Our listed roles test aircraft and service sites.

Getting paid

Test site crews are full-time hourly staff: postings list overtime pay, equity, health cover and PTO. DropBox field techs (Dallas, Houston, Phoenix) start on six-month contracts with set schedules that include weekends. Each posting states its hourly rate; none we read names a pay frequency.

Worker ratings

Glassdoor 3.7/5 (261 reviews). Read October 2026.

Verified active

9 open roles on Zipline, independently checked 4 Nov 2026.

Who can join

South San Francisco, CA (headquarters); test and flight roles at its sites, among them Amarillo, TX and Esparto and Half Moon Bay, CA

What people praise

  • Test site jobs are direct, benefited roles: the Amarillo, TX flight test operator posting lists overtime pay, equity, medical, dental and vision cover and paid time off.
  • A current flight test operator of more than a year (Glassdoor) named vesting equity, the hands-on experience and an inclusive team as pros.
  • A technician in Dallas, where Zipline flies Walmart orders, praised the pay in the latest of Zipline's 3 Dallas reviews on Glassdoor, though not the management.

What people complain about

  • Flight operators in Accra, Ghana (Glassdoor, 2022 and 2024) cite little career progression, staff afraid to raise concerns and poor local management.
  • A current flight test operator (Glassdoor) cited no work-life balance and nepotism in promotions; another, in 2022, said the pay was low for the work expected.
  • A flight operations worker of 3+ years in Lagos, Nigeria (Glassdoor) said country operations teams are the lowest paid group at Zipline and that the atmosphere turns toxic over time.
  • A former engineer of 3+ years (Glassdoor, June 2025) described constant changes of direction and layoffs that gutted teams. We found no news report or WARN notice of Zipline layoffs from 2023 to 2026.

What has gone wrong

  • November 2025. Zipline halted 3 of its 6 Ghana distribution centers (Anum, Sefwi-Wiawso and Kete-Krachi) from November 25, 2025, citing years of late government payments; it put the 2025 arrears at more than GH¢174 million. It called the halt temporary. Reports did not say what happened to staff at those sites.
  • December 2025. Ghana's health minister said the state pays $88,000 per center a month under a take-or-pay deal, whatever the volume. A ministerial review found only 16% of flights were emergency or hard-to-reach deliveries, and the Majority Leader called for the contract to be canceled. The terms were under review.
  • September 2026. Zipline P2 delivery drones came down by parachute in Greenville, TX on July 26 and onto Highway 6 in Cypress, near Houston, on September 4, 2026. No one was hurt; Zipline said the Houston cause was not yet known. It has not published how often its drones have come down in US service.
Who it suits

Best for: FAA Part 107 holders near Amarillo, TX or Esparto or Half Moon Bay, CA who want a full-time, benefited test flight job outdoors and can work weekends and nights and lift 50 lb. Not for: Anyone who needs regular daytime hours or a permanent job from day one: DropBox field tech roles start as six-month contracts and need your own car and a clean 3-year driving record.

Sources for this review

What Zipline pays

Measured live on its open roles · updated 4 Nov 2026
$35–$45/hrusual band, measured live

Today's median on Zipline: $35/hr, taken from the 5 open roles that list a rate. Posted rates go from $22/hr to $45/hr.

Based on 5 different posted rates, at this employer. 4 of these 9 openings give no hourly figure. Advertised USD hourly sample only, not a representative wage survey. Missing rates may bias the result in either direction.

Kind of workOpen rolesTypical pay
AV & Drone9$35–$45/hr

Zipline's best-paid openings right now

All 9, highest pay first

Typical pay here means the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling, measured the same way as every list on the job board. Wondering where a number comes from? Read how each pay figure is sourced and graded.

Kinds of work at Zipline

Open any of them for the day-to-day tasks, every employer hiring for it and market-wide pay.

AV & Drone Operators9 open hereRobot Fleet Operations

First time doing this kind of work? Read the beginner guides or line up pay at every employer.

What our research records about Zipline

34 dated facts from public sources (the company itself, filings, regulators, courts and the press), each kept with the publication it comes from in one of our research reports. Newest first; the newest is from 28 Oct 2026. Its own hiring, counted every day from its job board, is in Zipline hiring data.

All 34 facts about Zipline

  • Zipline said its drones had made more than 3 million deliveries and flown more than 140 million miles, with operations in more than 30 municipalities in four US states.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline launched its First Flight early access program in the Austin metro, starting in Round Rock, for the first 5,000 residents.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Côte d'Ivoire's government will pay Zipline's operating costs for eight years under a deal in which Zipline builds nine more drone facilities beside the one it has run there since 2023, Semafor reports.

    Source: Semafor · In Africa data collection

  • Zipline was in talks to raise approximately $1 billion, led by Paradigm, valued at around $20 billion (reported).

    Source: STAT Times (citing Bloomberg) · In Industry funding

  • Zipline and Uber announced a partnership to offer Zipline drone delivery through Uber Eats, starting in markets such as Dallas and Houston, with Uber also investing in Zipline; the companies set a goal of one million deliveries a day.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline said it had completed more than 2.5 million commercial deliveries, one million of them in the previous year, with roughly 70% of its flights in the United States.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline: more than 2.5 million commercial deliveries.

    Source: Zipline · In Industry revenue

  • Zipline's Fleet Commander (Remote Pilot in Command) role at its Fleet Command facility in South San Francisco pays $34.00 to $45.00 per hour; the commander owns the final safety call for multiple concurrent aircraft and needs an FAA Part 107 certificate.

    Source: Zipline (Greenhouse job board) · In Robotaxi remote assistance

  • Zipline said it would launch its first US healthcare home delivery service with Cleveland Clinic in July 2026, starting with prescription deliveries in the Beachwood suburb of Cleveland.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline's Nigeria country director told TechCabal it plans 12 more drone distribution centres in Nigeria, growing from three hubs (Kaduna, Cross River and Bayelsa states) to 15, and already serves over 1,300 health facilities.

    Source: TechCabal · In Africa data collection

  • As of May 2026, every drone operator in Nigeria must obtain an End-User Certificate from the Office of the National Security Adviser before approaching the civil aviation authority for a permit, TechCabal reports in its story on Zipline's Nigerian expansion.

    Source: TechCabal · In Africa data collection

  • Zipline opened its Houston service as an early access program (First Flight) limited to the first 5,000 eligible residents, starting in the Cypress neighborhood.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline raised another $200 million in its Series H (extension) round, from investors including Paradigm.

    Source: TechCrunch · In Industry funding

  • Zipline says its expanded nationwide drone network in Rwanda, with a third hub in Karongi District beside Muhanga and Kayonza, will cover over 11 million people and support about 350 local jobs.

    Source: Zipline · In Africa data collection

  • Rwanda signed the first expansion agreement under Zipline's State Department award, adding a third hub in Karongi District and Zipline's urban Platform 2 service in Kigali, for nationwide coverage of over 11 million people.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline said it passed 2 million commercial deliveries in the week of its January 2026 funding announcement, more than all other drone delivery companies combined by its own count.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline: surpassed 2 million commercial deliveries.

    Source: Zipline · In Industry revenue

  • Zipline raised more than $600 million in its Series H round, from investors including Valor Equity Partners, Tiger Global and Fidelity Management and Research Company, valued at $7.6 billion.

    Source: Bloomberg News (via Bloomberg Government) · In Industry funding

  • Zipline will receive up to US$150 million from the US State Department, released as African governments sign expansion contracts, with African countries paying up to US$400 million in usage fees.

    Source: Zipline · In Africa data collection

  • Zipline signed a pay-for-performance agreement with the US State Department worth up to $150 million to expand its medical drone delivery network in Africa, with African governments paying up to $400 million in utilization fees.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline: more than 1.6 million deliveries.

    Source: Zipline · In Industry revenue

  • Zipline said about a dozen people, mainly remote pilots in command, worked at its remote operations control center (ROCC) in Concord, North Carolina, monitoring its Utah and Arkansas distribution centers.

    Source: Zipline · In Robotaxi remote assistance

  • The FAA gave Zipline a first-of-its-kind approval to use its own UAS traffic management (UTM) system to coordinate flights with other drone operators; the FAA issued letters of acceptance to Zipline and Wing as automated data service providers in July 2024.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline made its one-millionth commercial delivery on April 19, 2024, a flight carrying IV fluid to a health facility in Ghana's Western North Region.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline: our one-millionth commercial delivery.

    Source: Zipline · In Industry revenue

  • An FAA Part 107 certificate of waiver to Zipline (effective January 10 to December 31, 2024) let one person act as remote pilot in command or visual observer for several small drones at once and allowed up to 30 to be operated simultaneously, as described in Zipline's application.

    Source: Federal Aviation Administration · In Drone delivery scale

  • After FAA approval of its onboard perception (detect and avoid) system, Zipline flew its first US beyond visual line of sight delivery flights without visual observers in Salt Lake City on November 17, 2023.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

  • Zipline said it had hundreds of Platform 1 drones in its fleet and made about 10,000 commercial deliveries a week across 7 countries.

    Source: Zipline · In Drone delivery scale

From the forum

Ask the people doing Zipline work what only they can tell you.

Ask about Zipline

Frequently asked questions

Is Zipline a good place to work?

Mostly. Zipline is a well-funded drone delivery leader that hires its test flight crews as full-time employees with overtime, equity and benefits, but flight crews on Glassdoor cite long hours, weak career paths and poor work-life balance. The hours and the terms: test flight jobs expect weekend, night and overnight shifts outdoors, DropBox field tech jobs are six-month contracts with no promised conversion, and work-life balance is the lowest of Zipline's Glassdoor scores.

Is Zipline legit?

Yes. Zipline International Inc., a private drone delivery firm in South San Francisco, was founded in 2014 by CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton and others. It raised $600 million+) in January 2026 at a $7.6 billion) valuation; Bloomberg reported $20 billion) talks in September 2026. Revelio Labs estimates 2,255) staff. It has made 2 million+) deliveries in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and the US (Walmart is a client). Our listed roles test aircraft and service sites.

Does Zipline pay?

Yes. Employer career board verified live on October 28, 2026 (343 open roles at check). Payouts: Employment and payment terms are stated in individual job postings.

How much does Zipline pay?

Today most of Zipline's listings pay $35–$45/hr, and the median sits at $35/hr, measured on the 5 open roles that list a rate. Posted rates go from $22/hr to $45/hr.

Is Zipline worth it?

Zipline pays $35–$45/hr in most of its live listings (median $35/hr). It suits people in its operating cities who can work scheduled shifts and hold any license or certificate the role asks for. Worth knowing: Glassdoor 3.7/5 (261 reviews).

How does Zipline pay out?

Employment and payment terms are stated in individual job postings.

Where is Zipline open to workers?

South San Francisco, CA (headquarters); test and flight roles at its sites, among them Amarillo, TX and Esparto and Half Moon Bay, CA

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