Aircraft Software Integration Intern (Spring 2027)

About Zipline

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service, focused on serving 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.

About The Software Integration Team

This team is responsible for the decision-making component of the aircraft, writing software that executes missions and controls aircraft behaviors for tasks like deliveries and safety-critical functions. They collaborate with cloud, motion planning, perception, controls, and firmware teams.

The Role

We're looking for an Autonomy Software Engineer Intern to join our team building integrated autonomy features and bringing them to production. This role focuses on the frontier of autonomous flight, bridging mission logic, real-time systems, autonomy behaviors, and validation frameworks. You will work across planning, perception, and controls subsystems, shaping how autonomous features behave in flight. Your work will integrate embedded aircraft software with simulation infrastructure, telemetry systems, and flight operations.

What You'll Do

• Work on the integration of complex autonomy features, including embedded flight software, real-time behavior logic, and mission-critical runtime systems.
• Implement core vehicle software in Rust, focusing on performance, safety, and observability in safety-critical environments.
• Develop tooling for validation, including software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing.
• Partner with systems engineering and autonomy teams to define real-world success metrics and build necessary interfaces and logging infrastructure.

What You'll Bring

• Experience developing software in robotics, aerospace, autonomous vehicles, or other safety-critical embedded systems.
• Experience in Rust, C++, or C.
• Strong systems-thinking mindset, with an interest in integrating cross-disciplinary software under tight constraints (e.g., timing, safety, power).
• Hands-on experience with robotics testing, including simulation.
• Ability and interest to work cross-functionally across different domains (hardware, software, cloud).
• A go-getter attitude and motivation to find solutions.

Internship Details

• This is a full-time, in-person position at Zipline's South San Francisco office.
• The internship will run from January to April/May 2027.
• Candidates are limited to three (3) applications within a 30-day period.
• Compensation will be based on factors including experience, qualifications, skills, and location.
• The total compensation package may include a housing stipend, overtime pay, relocation support, and paid sick time.