Operations Readiness Program Manager, Nigeria

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

Every new Zipline site brings fast reliable access to essential medical products closer to the people who need them. But a site is not ready simply because construction is complete. It is ready when the people are trained the systems are tested the approvals are secured and the operation can deliver safely and reliably from its first flight onward.

We are hiring an Operations Readiness Program Manager to lead new Long Range Platform launches across Nigeria. You will own country-level readiness for multiple concurrent site launchesmaking launch decisions driving cross-functional alignment and raising the operational bar so sites launch faster safer and scale reliably. This work directly enables Ziplines mission to build an instant delivery system that delivers critical medical and commercial goods across hard-to-reach regions; your success reduces time-to-service increases launch reliability and ensures safe certified flight operations in challenging field environments.

What Youll Do

• Own end-to-end operational readiness for 36 concurrent Long Range Platform site launches across Nigeria from planning through first flight and early stabilization; maintain an integrated program plan with milestones dependencies risks and mitigation actions.
• Define and enforce clear go/no-go criteria and measurable acceptance standards for safety staffing training & certification infrastructure equipment communications power charging systems and first-flight procedures.
• Maintain and report against launch KPIs (e.g. staffing readiness % certification completion % equipment acceptance pass rate launch go/no-go rate) and use those metrics to stop or green-light launches.
• Lead the cross-functional readiness cadence and day-to-day decision rhythm driving alignment between Recruiting Academy Engineering Construction Supply Chain Safety/Regulatory Partnerships and Country Leadership; resolve conflicts and escalate issues with clear decision requests.
• Validate readiness through field verification: lead on-site checkouts acceptance tests and flight-readiness demonstrations; identify and close launch-critical gaps before first flight.
• Own staffing and competency readiness: confirm role fills onboarding and on-site proficiency; own the decision that site teams can operate independently and safely at first flight.
• Coordinate regulatory and community-readiness actions required for launch; ensure permit/approval evidence and safety artifacts meet acceptance standards before launch.
• Lead post-launch reviews and root-cause analysis measure performance against launch targets (e.g. time-to-service initial reliability) and convert findings into updated standards playbooks and training requirements.
• Escalate unresolved safety regulatory or critical-path blockers promptly with recommended remediation and clear authority boundaries.

What Youll Bring

• 5 years program management field operations or deployment experience in technical regulated or aviation-adjacent environments; direct site launch or activation experience required/preferred as documented in prior roles.
• Proven track record managing multi-stakeholder launches or rollouts across field sites with measurable outcomes (examples: number of sites launched % time-to-launch reduction reduced safety incident rate); be prepared to cite specific metrics from past programs.
• Demonstrated ability to define go/no-go criteria write acceptance tests and enforce KPIs under schedule pressure; comfortable making and owning launch decisions.
• Hands-on experience coordinating engineering construction supply chain and training to achieve first operational use at field sites; experience validating power communications charging systems aircraft and ground equipment preferred.
• Clear escalation judgment and stakeholder management: can resolve conflicts escalate early and present decision-ready summaries to country leadership.
• Able to operate in high-intensity field conditions: willing to spend extended periods on-site during launches and to work irregular hours around critical milestones.
• Willingness and ability to travel throughout Nigeria 2030% typically with higher intensity during launch windows.
• Fluency in English and authorization to work in Nigeria.

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 religion age sex national origin disability status genetics protected veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by federal state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

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!