Zipline
Material Flow Engineer
$104K–$170K
South San Francisco, California, USA +1 · Full-time · Posted Oct 29, 2026
- Location
- South San Francisco, California, USA
South San Francisco, California, United States - Experience
- 3+ years in industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, operations engineering, production systems, or a comparable environment; 5–7 years preferred.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Operations Research, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
About the job
Designs and improves factory layouts, workflows, capacity, and production systems to scale manufacturing reliably.
What you'll do
- Improve layouts, workstations, material presentation, and WIP, buffer, queue, and replenishment strategies.
- Conduct time studies, establish standard work and labor models, balance stations to takt time, and identify production bottlenecks.
- Build capacity and investment scenarios, develop factory KPIs and decision tools, and implement improvements to throughput, utilization, lead time, and cost.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Operations Research, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
- Experience with time studies, labor and capacity models, line balancing, takt time, standard work, factory layouts, and material flow.
- Strong spreadsheet and analytical skills, including work with ERP, MES, labor-tracking, and production data.
- Ability to build operational and financial models for capital investment, automation, make-versus-buy, and factory scaling.
Nice to have
- 5–7 years of relevant experience.
- Experience scaling complex electromechanical products, expanding factories, or launching new production lines; familiarity with simulation, optimization, SQL, Python, BI tools, manufacturing dashboards, ERP/MES platforms, or Lean manufacturing methods.
Pay
$104,000 - $170,000 USD starting cash range
Tools
ERP, MES, SQL, Python, BI tools
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative