Zipline
Failure Analysis Engineer - Materials
South San Francisco, California, USA +1 · Full-time · Posted Aug 12, 2026
- Location
- South San Francisco, California, USA
South San Francisco, California, United States - Experience
- 3+ years.
- Visa sponsorship
- Must be eligible to work in the US.
About the job
Own physical investigations of consequential hardware failures, determine evidence-based failure mechanisms, and ensure findings inform corrective actions and product reliability.
What you'll do
- Lead failure investigations from intake through technical conclusion, including evidence preservation, analysis, documentation, and communication.
- Develop standardized investigation workflows and searchable failure knowledge to identify recurring mechanisms.
- Partner with engineering and operations teams to apply findings to corrective actions, design, suppliers, testing, and fleet decisions.
What they ask for
- 3+ years of hands-on experience in Failure Analysis, Materials Science, Materials Engineering, or a related hardware engineering discipline.
- Demonstrated ability to independently investigate hardware failures and reach defensible conclusions from physical evidence.
- Hands-on experience with multiple failure-analysis and materials-characterization techniques.
- Strong understanding of material failure mechanisms and deep expertise in at least one major class of engineering materials or hardware.
Nice to have
- Experience developing laboratory methods, technical documentation, databases, or institutional Failure Analysis processes.
- Experience working with external analytical laboratories and suppliers.
Tools
optical microscopy, SEM/EDS, CT, FTIR, metallography, cross-sectioning, mechanical testing, DSC
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative