Job Title: Operations Readiness Program Manager, Nigeria
Location: Lagos
About You and The Role
- 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 launches—making launch decisions, driving cross-functional alignment, and raising the operational bar so sites launch faster, safer, and scale reliably.
- This work directly enables Zipline’s 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 You'll Do
- Own end-to-end operational readiness for 3–6 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 You'll 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 ~20–30% typically, with higher intensity during launch windows.
- Fluency in English and authorization to work in Nigeria.
Application Closing Date
Not Specified.
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online
