Service Engineer I

Job Summary

The Service Engineer I triages hardware tickets, operational system alerts, and telemetry logs to isolate fault origins on grounded autonomous assets. This engineer executes approved technical diagnostic guides, documents symptom chronologies for regulatory compliance, manages formal problem escalations to advanced engineering teams, designs hardware maintenance work orders, and provides feedback to optimize first-level fleet recovery workflows.

Key Roles & Operational Responsibilities

1. Frontline Triage & Telemetry Diagnostics

• System Alert Triage: Monitor, evaluate, and categorize incoming tickets, operational system alerts, raw data logs, and field reports continuously.
• Impact Prioritization: Organize active diagnostic tasks based on strict safety protocols, downstream customer delivery impacts, and broader fleet operational needs.
• Workflow Execution: Run approved technical diagnostic instructions, standardized checklists, and recovery workflows to return grounded aircraft, delivery droids, and charging docks to active status.

2. Technical Documentation & Escalation Governance

• Traceability Records: Document symptoms, completed test steps, operational changes, and final outcomes thoroughly to ensure complete historical traceability across shifts and satisfy civil aviation regulatory codes.
• Structured Escalation: Package unresolved or highly complex hardware conflicts cleanly, routing them to Service Engineer II teams, Senior Engineering, or Support Operations with complete log extracts, diagnostic actions taken, and recommended next steps.
• Work Order Engineering: Create precise maintenance work orders and manage the physical handoff pipelines for assets requiring detailed field inspections, mechanical repairs, structural replacements, or scheduled services.

3. Continuous Improvement & Architecture Feedback

• Pattern Isolation: Analyze routine support tickets to identify recurring component failures, software bugs, or component manufacturing vulnerabilities.
• Workflow Optimization: Evaluate troubleshooting documentation and tool friction points, providing actionable technical feedback to make first-level recovery procedures more repeatable.

Foundational Capabilities & Prerequisites

Required Technical Profile & Experience

• Experience Baseline: Minimum of two (2) or more years of progressive, related experience in technical support, service operations, hardware maintenance coordination, aviation mechanics, robotics support, hardware manufacturing, field technician operations, or client customer operations.
• Documentation Adherence: Proven ability to read, interpret, and follow dense technical blueprints, complex standard operating procedures (SOPs), and electronic troubleshooting matrices with consistent attention to safety and quality guidelines.
• Analytical Toolkit: Demonstrated experience investigating complex technical issues using system logs, hardware telemetry streams, live dashboards, ticketing frameworks, incident management applications, or digital diagnostic tools.
• Communication Command: Exceptional written and verbal communication tools required to explain complex hardware symptoms, completed maintenance checks, system modifications, and escalation requirements to both technical engineers and field operators.
• Ambiguity Resilience: Calm, disciplined judgment in high-pressure or ambiguous operational situations, with a strict habit of following established processes, asking precise technical questions, and executing escalations at the correct thresholds.
• Physical Resilience: Ability to sit or stand for extended periods while reviewing tickets, monitoring dashboards, conducting troubleshooting, documenting activity, and coordinating with cross-functional teams.
• Legal Authorization: Must possess full, verified eligibility to work in Rwanda.

Preferred Qualifications

• Academic Foundation: A Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Aviation Technology, Robotics, or a related quantitative scientific discipline.
• Systems Exposure: Practical familiarity or hands-on exposure to autonomous aircraft, drones, robotics architectures, electromechanical systems, complex supply chain logistics platforms, or heavy industrial operational environments.

What Zipline Offers

• Systemic Real-World Impact: Shape the future of global logistics by managing an autonomous infrastructure that delivers life-saving medical supplies and essential consumer goods.
• First-Principles Culture: Work within an environment that solves complex, real-world problems from first principles, values growth through adversity, and pushes autonomous technology forward at record-breaking speeds.
• Inclusive Professional Ecosystem: Advance your technical profile within a diverse corporate framework that welcomes unique perspectives and supports traditionally underrepresented professionals in tech.

Skills Required:

• Computer / Software / It / Data
• Mechanics / Mechanical / Engineering