The posting
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
Every site Zipline operates or builds in Africa depends on the right parts, batteries, hardware and materials arriving when they are needed. As the Head of Logistics for Africa, you will own that inbound chain end to end: land everything the network needs on time, in full and at a published price, and make customs clearance routine. You will lead our in-country logistics analysts, act as the single point of contact into Zipline’s global supply chain and production team in South San Francisco, and hold a high bar for integrity and controls. You will report to the Head of Operations, Africa, and work alongside the Heads of Deployments and Service Delivery as one regional leadership team.
What You’ll Do
- Own the inbound supply chain into our operating sites and onto build sites: freight, ports, customs, a spares warehouse in each country, batteries, prefabricated site hardware, and construction materials.
- Build corridor discipline: a standing customs dossier for each country, a pre-agreed HS classification catalogue, and exemption processes written into contracts and worked through our Country Directors’ government relationships.
- Set two-way service-level agreements with site operations and the Deployments team at published transfer prices, so every miss is priced, visible and credited.
- Drive emergency air freight towards zero, using buffer stock as risk cover.
- Be the single named interface to Zipline’s global supply chain and production team in South San Francisco, with one procurement line into Africa.
- Lead and develop our in-country logistics analysts in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire.
- Put integrity and controls first: accurate customs valuation, clean import documentation, and rigorous reconciliation of vendor and forwarder billing.
What Success Looks Like
- Consistently high on-time-in-full delivery to operating sites and build sites.
- Customs clearance that is fast and predictable.
- Landed costs on or under plan.
- Emergency air freight spend falling towards zero.
- SLAs met, with every miss visible and credited.
What You’ll Bring
- 10–15 years running cross-border supply chains in Africa, in freight forwarding, FMCG, pharmaceutical or health logistics, telecoms, or humanitarian logistics at scale.
- Deep, hands-on customs and corridor experience in West and East Africa, including declared-value and valuation discipline.
- You have priced and published internal SLAs, and you have taken emergency freight out of a network before.
- A strong controls mindset and firm discipline with vendors and freight forwarders.
- Strong programme and project management instincts: you drive workstreams end to end across teams you don't directly lead.
What Else You Need to Know
This role is based in one of Zipline’s Africa operations hubs or regional offices, with regular travel across the region as required.
Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies.
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!
Voluntary Self-Identification
For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.
As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.
