flyzipline · South San Francisco, California, USA · South San Francisco, California, United States
<div class="content-intro"><h3>About Zipline</h3> <p>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. </p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p></div><h3><strong>About the Software Integration Team</strong></h3> <p>Are you a deeply technical software engineer drawn to the complexity of real-world autonomy systems? Do you thrive at the intersection of <strong>robotics, embedded software, and systems integration</strong>, where your code directly influences high-stakes, physical outcomes? At Zipline, we operate the world’s largest autonomous delivery network—and we’re building the tools and infrastructure to scale that system safely, globally, and intelligently.</p> <p>Our team is responsible for decision making component of the aircraft. We write the software that executes missions, control behaviors on the aircraft such as lowering the zip for a delivery or providing safety critical functionality like responding to a fault and flying back home as soon as possible. We work with cloud, motion planning, perception, controls and firmware teams.</p> <h3><strong>The Role</strong></h3> <p>We're looking for a <strong>Autonomy Software Engineer Intern</strong> to join our team building integrated autonomy features and push them across the finish line into production. This role is <strong>not about building web apps or backend dashboards</strong>—it's about working at the frontier of autonomous flight: bridging mission logic, real-time systems, autonomy behaviors, and validation frameworks.</p> <p>You’ll work across planning, perception, and controls subsystems, shaping how autonomous features like emergency landings, route adaptations, and dynamic delivery constraints behave in flight. Your work will integrate embedded aircraft software with simulation infrastructure, telemetry systems, and flight operations to ensure features launch with <strong>robust performance, measurable safety, and high availability</strong>.</p> <h3><strong>What You'll Do</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Work on integration of complex autonomy features</strong>, spanning embedded flight software, real-time behavior logic, and mission-critical runtime systems.</li> <li>Implement core vehicle software in <strong>Rust</strong>, with a focus on performance, safety, and observability in safety-critical environments.</li> <li>Develop tooling to support validation, including <strong>software-in-the-loop (SIL)</strong> and <strong>hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)</strong> testing for rapid iteration and safe experimentation.</li> <li>Partner with systems engineering and autonomy teams to define <strong>real-world success metrics</strong> and build the interfaces and logging infrastructure to track them.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>What You'll Bring</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Experience developing software in <strong>robotics, aerospace, autonomous vehicles, or other safety-critical embedded systems</strong>.</li> <li>Experience in <strong>Rust, C++, or C</strong></li> <li>Strong systems-thinking mindset, with an interest to integrate cross-disciplinary software under tight constraints (e.g. timing, safety, power).</li> <li>Hands-on experience with <strong>robotics testing</strong>, including simulation.</li> <li>Ability and interest to work cross-functionally across different domains (hardware, software, cloud)</li> <li>A go-getter attitude - motivation to get things and find the answers to make it happen</li> </ul> <h3><strong>What Else You Should Know</strong></h3> <p><em>Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco office. We will host our Spring 2027 interns from January to April/May.</em></p> <p><em>Candidates are limited to <strong data-start="868" data-end="917">three (3) applications within a 30-day period.</strong></em></p> <p><em>The hourly rate for this internship is $54 per hour. Additional benefits may include relocation su