Head of Deployments

Zipline - Do you want to change the world? Zipline uses drones to deliver critical and life-saving medicine to thousands of hospitals serving millions of people in multiple countries. Our mission is to provide every human on Earth with instant access to vital medical supplies. Join Zipline and help us make this a reality for billions of people. We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Deployments Locations: Abuja and Lagos About You And The Role Zipline is entering its biggest build period in Africa yet. Over the next two years we will open more than 20 new distribution sites across Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, and launch our first Precision Delivery network in Kigali, Rwanda. As Head of Deployments, Africa, you will own every launch from signed contract to a certified, operating site, and make each one faster and more repeatable than the last. Every site should be handed over ready to run, with no open issues left for the operating team. You will lead parallel launch teams across several countries, own the playbook every launch runs on, and build an organisation that scales up for a build wave and back down when it’s done. You will report to the Head of Operations, Africa, and work alongside the Heads of Service Delivery and Logistics as one regional leadership team. What You'll Do Lead parallel launch programmes across Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, taking each site from signed contract through land, permits, construction, power, hiring, training and commissioning to handover. Drive the work, not just coordinate it. Set the pace on every launch, hold owners to their dates and the quality bar, and step in early when a launch starts to slip. Run our first Precision Delivery launch in Kigali as a dedicated workstream, with a clear go/no-go gate and dependencies agreed with our platform and engineering teams. Own the deployment playbook and standard bill of materials, and productise them so each launch is faster than the last. Plan each country as a single programme, with one customs plan, one spares plan and one power strategy per country. Hand over every site through a written acceptance gate that the operating team can refuse, and own the cost of any defects in the first 90 days after handover. Build and lead a flexible team: a small permanent core covering programme management, operations readiness, construction, electrical and commercial, plus in-country launch pods and contract build labour. Hire and develop strong leaders, and redeploy talent well as each build wave winds down. Partner closely with Country Directors, governments and regulators, contractors, Supply Chain and Logistics, and Engineering to clear the path for every launch. What Success Looks Like: Sites go live certified and on plan, and time to launch falls with every launch. Sites are accepted first time, with few defects in the first 90 days. Every site is delivered on or under budget. The Kigali Precision Delivery launch clears its gates on schedule. Every new launch starts from the playbook. What You'll Bring 12 – 15+ years delivering multi-site infrastructure or network build programmes, such as telecom tower rollouts, renewable energy, logistics hubs, data centres or fulfilment networks at scale. Hands-on build experience in Africa, covering land, permits, customs, power, contractors and government interfaces. Experience in West Africa is especially valued. A track record of running parallel builds against a contractual deadline. Experience building a repeatable deployment playbook and applying it across many sites. Senior enough to set strategy and lead leaders; hands-on enough to walk a site and see what needs fixing. Comfort leading an organisation that grows and shrinks with the launch pipeline. Strong programme and project management instincts: you drive workstreams end to end across teams you don't directly lead. Excellent stakeholder and negotiation skills, with a track record of aligning senior commercial leaders around a plan and holding a quality bar under delivery pressure.