Technical Program Manager, Deployments

About Zipline

Zipline is the worlds 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 worlds 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 worlds 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 weve 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 peoples 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.

About You and The Role

At Zipline every new distribution center expands access to life-saving and essential deliveries for millions of people. Nigeria represents one of our most important and ambitious deployment programs with multiple launches requiring close coordination across engineering supply chain construction logistics regulatory software operations finance and country leadership.

Were looking for an exceptional Technical Program Manager to lead the end-to-end execution of Ziplines Nigeria deployments. Youll own the integrated deployment plan operating cadence tools and processes required to turn a complex portfolio of launches into predictable repeatable execution. Working across Nigeria-based and global teams youll identify risks early drive accountability resolve cross-functional issues and ensure every site is ready to launch safely and successfully.

If youre energized by bringing order to complexity leading high-stakes programs and building systems that deliver meaningful real-world impact wed love to hear from you.

What Youll Do

Own the Nigeria deployment Operating system

• Own the master deployment plan across multiple concurrent distribution center launches in Nigeria.
• Build and maintain integrated schedules connecting construction procurement shipping hardware commissioning regulatory approvals software readiness operations readiness hiring training and launch execution.
• Maintain a single source of truth for program health site readiness key dependencies and critical-path milestones.
• Continuously improve the deployment operating model so Nigeria launches become faster more predictable higher quality and more cost-effective over timewith the long-term goal of launching new distribution centers in under three months.

Drive cross-functional execution

• Lead execution across Engineering Supply Chain Construction Logistics Regulatory Operations Finance and Nigeria country teams.
• Identify risks months before they become problems by understanding long-term dependencies across workstreams and anticipate how decisions made today can accelerate or jeopardize a launch many months down the road.
• Ensure every workstream has clear ownership accountability and escalation paths.
• Partner closely with Nigeria leadership to align deployments with customer commitments and country priorities.
• Serve as the central coordination point during commissioning and launch windows helping teams rapidly resolve issues that threaten launch.

Build systems that scale

• Develop repeatable planning tools stage gates dashboards templates playbooks and readiness checklists that contribute to or become the standard for deployments globally.
• Establish metrics that provide clear visibility into schedule performance launch readiness execution quality and deployment cost.
• Raise the execution standard across the company by building planning processes operating rhythms and decision-making mechanisms that enable teams to execute consistently at a world-class level.
• Capture lessons from every launch and translate them into improvements for future Nigeria and global deployments.

Lead program governance

• Run weekly program reviews executive status updates cross-functional risk reviews launch readiness reviews and post-launch retrospectives.
• Provide leaders with concise decision-oriented reporting that highlights priorities risks tradeoffs and actions.
• Drive timely decisions when priorities compete assumptions change or plans fall behind.

What Youll Bring

• 6 years leading complex technical operational infrastructure construction manufacturing deployment or supply chain programs.
• Proven track record managing large cross-functional programs with multiple organizations and long-lead dependencies with accountability for schedule quality and cost.
• Experience launching complex physical infrastructure or real-world operational systems. Experience in Nigeria or a comparable operating environment is highly preferred.
• Strong program management fundamentals including integrated planning critical-path management risk mitigation dependency management and escalation frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to build operating systems such as integrated schedules stage gates readiness criteria playbooks and program dashboards.
• Hands-on experience with program and scheduling tools (e.g. Smartsheet Microsoft Project Primavera Jira Airtable) AI tools and building dashboards that track KPIs.
• Clear concise communicator who can simplify technical complexity and coordinate large cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Ability to work effectively across global cross-cultural teams and translate between on-the-ground realities and global requirements.

Operating context and traits

• Comfort operating in fast-paced ambiguous and safety- or regulation-sensitive environments.
• Willingness to travel regularly within Nigeria and internationally for planning commissioning and launch support.
• Flexibility to regularly work across time zones and outside normal hours during critical launch periods.
• Relentless attention to detail disciplined cadence-setting strong judgment and a bias toward measurable outcomes.

Non-negotiables

• Prior ownership of integrated deployment schedules spanning engineering procurement or manufacturing shipping and logistics and regulatory activities.
• Demonstrated history of improving schedule predictability launch readiness deployment cost or execution quality.
• Experience personally driving complex programs through executionnot only creating plans or facilitating status meetings.

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 ancestry national origin religion or religious creed mental or physical disability medical condition genetic information sex (including pregnancy childbirth and related medical conditions) sexual orientation gender identity gender expression age marital status military or veteran status citizenship or other characteristics protected by state federal or local law or our other policies.

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!

Voluntary Self-Identification

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.