Head of Weather Intelligence
$185,000–$255,000 year
On-site · South San Francisco, California, United States
Job Summary
Head of Weather Intelligence leads Zipline's automated weather monitoring and risk system used for real-time flight go/no-go decisions. Owns development of weather models and sensing systems, defines flyable weather envelopes to meet safety and business goals, drives validation across simulations and real-world operations, and communicates operational constraints to cross-functional teams. The role requires senior leadership, deep expertise in weather, meteorology, data analysis, and scalable systems, plus the ability to translate large, uncertain datasets into actionable, decision-ready insights for uptime, customer experience, and throughput. Key technical expectations include Python data analysis, geospatial data handling, and production languages/systems (Rust, C++, Kubernetes, AWS). The role is based in South San Francisco with in-office requirements and focuses on building scalable, safety-first weather intelligence capabilities for Zipline’s global autonomous logistics network.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of industry experience with leadership or readiness to lead a small team of 3-5 direct reports
- Deep fluency in Python and data-analysis tools (Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, Xarray, NetCDF)
- Ability to learn/operate production languages and systems (Rust, C++, Kubernetes, AWS)
- Experience with geospatial and meteorological datasets, formats, tooling
- Strong ability to process large datasets across distributed systems; experience with Kafka or streaming systems
- Foundations in statistics, probability, linear algebra, machine learning, and statistical modeling
- Ability to translate complex weather data into actionable operational decisions
- Excellent communication skills to explain meteorology and operational implications to non-experts
- Willingness to travel globally as needed; role based at South San Francisco HQ
- Eligibility to work in the US
- 5 days per week in-office requirement
- Not explicitly requiring a specific degree (no degree required would not be stated)
- Bonus: familiarity with aviation weather or aviation regulations
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