Launch Lead, Rwanda at Zipline in Kigali

Job description

About Zipline Zipline is the world’s 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 world’s 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 world’s 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 we’ve 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 people’s 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 Zipline is bringing its next-generation Precision Delivery system to Africa for the first time, starting in Kigali. This is our first Precision Delivery (P2) network anywhere outside the United States, and the first of its kind on the continent. The person who leads this launch won’t just open a site: they’ll set the model for how Zipline takes Precision Delivery to the rest of the world. We are seeking a Launch Lead to lead the launch of the Kigali network and establish the operating model for future Precision Delivery expansion across Africa. This is a senior, highly cross-functional role responsible for turning a complex technical deployment into a safe, reliable, partner-ready, customer-serving operation. You will own the integrated launch, bringing together workstreams across Operations, Engineering, Partnerships, Government Affairs, Academy, Supply Chain, and Infrastructure to achieve a successful launch. Success will require adapting learnings from the US experience to local realities – from staffing and training to partner onboarding, regulatory requirements, customer readiness, and network support. You will spend significant time in the field driving execution while also building the systems, readiness standards, and operating mechanisms that will serve as the foundation for future Precision Delivery launches across Africa. This role is based in Kigali. After Kigali, you will lead the next Precision Delivery sites in Rwanda and take the playbook to the next markets in Africa What You'll Do Own the successful launch of Zipline's first Precision Delivery network in Africa, leading the effort from early readiness planning through launch and stabilization. Build and manage the integrated launch roadmap across infrastructure, operations, staffing, training, partner readiness, customer support, community and regulatory engagement, commercial activation, and network scale-up – ensuring all launch-critical activities have clear owners, timelines, dependencies, risks, and escalation paths. Establish and run the launch operating system, including launch readiness reviews, risk management, dependency tracking, decision logs, executive reporting, launch criteria, and go/no-go mechanisms. You hold the launch gate, and you call not-ready when the system isn't ready. Own the dependency list against the Precision Delivery platform roadmap with Engineerin