Long Range Platform Hardware Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)
Zipline · South San Francisco, California, USA ·
- Seniority
- Intern
- Employment
- Internship
- Category
- Hardware
- Company size
- 501-1000
Design, build, and test hardware for Zipline’s long-range autonomous delivery drones, iterating from prototypes to field-ready systems that deliver critical goods globally.
About Zipline
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.
About the Long Range Platform Engineering Team
The Long Range Platform Design Engineering team is responsible for designing, testing, and continuously improving the hardware that makes up Zipline’s long-range autonomous delivery aircraft. We own hardware across the aircraft, from structures and mechanisms to electromechanical systems, taking designs from early concepts and prototypes through validation, production, and operation in the field. Our engineers work hands-on and cross-functionally, partnering closely with teams across Test, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Operations to solve challenging multidisciplinary problems. We focus not just on making hardware that works, but on making it reliable, lightweight, manufacturable, maintainable, and capable of performing day after day in demanding environments. By improving the performance and reliability of our aircraft, our team directly enables Zipline to deliver critical goods safely and consistently at global scale. What makes our team special is the breadth of ownership: you can take an idea from a sketch or CAD model, build and test it yourself, and ultimately see it flying in a system serving customers around the world.
Your Role
As a Hardware Engineering Intern on the Long Range Platform Design Engineering team, you’ll take ownership of real hardware challenges that directly impact the performance, reliability, and scalability of Zipline’s long-range delivery system. You’ll have the opportunity to take a project from understanding the problem and developing concepts through building, testing, and iterating on real hardware. Your work won’t live on a shelf—you’ll see how the decisions you make contribute to aircraft that operate every day and help Zipline expand access to essential goods around the world. Along the way, you’ll work closely with experienced engineers and collaborate with teams across the company, learning how complex hardware goes from an idea to a reliable product operating at scale. This is an opportunity to build your engineering judgment, get your hands dirty, and make a meaningful contribution to a system with real-world impact.
What You'll Do
- Own a focused hardware design project or root-cause investigation from problem definition through a tested solution.
- Develop mechanical and/or electrical designs using engineering fundamentals, CAD, and analysis.
- Build and iterate on prototypes, test fixtures, and hardware using hands-on fabrication and assembly.
- Design and run tests to characterize performance, investigate failures, and validate solutions.
- Analyze test data to identify root causes, evaluate tradeoffs, and make engineering decisions.
- Collaborate with experienced engineers across disciplines and learn how complex hardware is developed and deployed.
- Communicate your work through design reviews, test results, and technical documentation.
What You'll Bring
- Pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, ideally in your junior or senior year.
- Strong understanding of core engineering fundamentals and an ability to apply them to open-ended hardware problems.
- Experience building, testing, or troubleshooting physical systems through coursework, project teams, research, internships, or personal projects.
- Comfort working hands-on with prototypes, tools, test equipment, and basic fabrication or assembly.
- Ability to analyze data, identify likely root causes, and clearly communicate your reasoning.
- Curiosity, ownership, and a willingness to learn quickly from both successes and failures.
- Ability to work onsite and collaborate closely with engineers in a hands-on hardware development environment.
What Else You Should Know
Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco office. We will host our Summer 2027 interns from May/June 2027 to August/September 2027. This position is also open to Spring/Summer co-ops.
Candidates are limited to three (3) applications within a 30-day period.
Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.
Zipline is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your point of contact at Zipline know if you require any accommodations throughout your interview process.
Voluntary Self-Identification
For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.
As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.