Spatial Analysis Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

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.

Zipline is on a mission to transform how goods move by making autonomous drone delivery the fastest, most reliable, and most delightful logistics system in the world. With the launch of our P2 system in January 2025, deliveries in the United States are growing rapidly — and we are preparing to scale our physical network at unprecedented speed.

We're looking for a Senior Analyst to help decide where Zipline builds next. Over the next two years, we will deploy hundreds of charging and delivery sites across the U.S., and this role will play a central part in determining which metros we enter, where within those metros we build, and how much infrastructure we deploy.

This is not a traditional analytics role. You won't be handed clean datasets and narrowly defined questions. Instead, you'll work in a highly ambiguous, novel problem space — finding, creating, and integrating data where it doesn't yet exist. You'll partner closely with go-to-market, real estate, engineering, and operations teams to translate spatial, commercial, and operational complexity into clear recommendations for leadership.

To succeed, you must be comfortable owning open-ended problems, working deeply with Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) and building scalable analyses, tools, and automations that enable Zipline to grow faster and smarter.

Network & Site Strategy:
Evaluate potential metros and charging locations using GIS, mapping tools, and diverse datasets. You'll help define where Zipline should expand, how infrastructure should be distributed, and what constraints matter most.

Real Estate Decision Support:
Provide clear, data-backed guidance to real estate teams on where to search, how much to build, and how to evaluate tradeoffs in lease terms, site characteristics, and long-term flexibility.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:
Work closely with sales, customer success, real estate, engineering, and operations to align spatial planning decisions with commercial demand, operational feasibility, and customer needs.

Visualization & Communication:
Create clear, compelling GIS visualizations and analytical outputs that distill complex spatial and operational dynamics into simple, executive-ready conclusions.

Scaling Through Automation & AI:
Build repeatable tools, workflows, and automations — leveraging AI where appropriate — so that site evaluation and metro planning can scale beyond you and be used broadly across Zipline.

Problem Framing in Ambiguity:
Develop reasonable assumptions and proxy metrics when perfect data doesn't exist. You'll identify creative ways to answer critical questions despite incomplete or noisy information.

High Ownership & Initiative:
You are a self-starter who thrives in unstructured environments. When you don't have the exact data you need, you find a way forward — whether through proxies, external datasets, or novel approaches.

GIS & Spatial Analysis Experience:
At least 3-5 years of hands-on experience with geospatial data wrangling, querying, analysis, visualization, and validation.

Business Judgment:
Strong intuition for how analytical insights translate into business impact. You can evaluate tradeoffs in cost, risk, and scalability — including the implications of lease terms and infrastructure investments.

Analytical & Technical Fluency:
Advanced proficiency in Excel and Google Sheets. Comfort using AI tools for analysis, light programming, and troubleshooting. Familiarity with SQL and Python is expected. Zipline primarily uses open source GIS tools, such as QGIS.

Executive Communication:
Ability to present conclusions with clarity and poise. You can simplify complex analyses, clearly state assumptions, build executive standard presentations, and guide leadership toward confident decisions.

Comfort with Ambiguity:
You are energized by novel problems and uncertain inputs. You make thoughtful assumptions, test them, and iterate quickly in pursuit of better answers.

Direct Ownership of Expansion:
Your work will directly influence where Zipline builds infrastructure and how fast we scale across the United States. You will be the key person helping guide where drone delivery goes next at a macro and micro level.

Cross-Functional Impact:
You'll partner with some of Zipline's most critical teams — from real estate and go-to-market to engineering and operations — shaping decisions that span the entire company.

Build Something New:
This is a chance to help define how network planning and spatial analytics work in a brand-new industry. You'll have the freedom to invent tools, processes, and frameworks from the ground up.

High Trust, High Impact:
We value speed, rigor, and judgment. Your analyses won't sit in decks — they'll inform real decisions that unlock growth and operational excellence.