Electrical Engineer Intern (Summer 2027)

Skills this role screens for

About the role

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 Electrical Engineering Team

At Zipline, the Electrical Engineering Teams are at the heart of our flight and ground systems, responsible for designing, building, and testing all the electronics and software that goes into a scaled instant logistics system. From custom circuit board design, EOL tester development, and sensor integration to real-time flight control and communication systems, the team ensures our platforms operate safely and effectively in some of the most challenging environments in the world. The team works cross-functionally with mechanical, test, embedded, software, and systems engineering teams to create scalable, high-performance products that power life-saving missions every day.

The work

The Role

Leading the way in drone delivery often means exceeding the capabilities of what's available off the shelf, and as a result we are engineering the majority of our system in-house. Doubling down on the reliability of our systems is critical to delivering to our next billion customers--people whose lives will be meaningfully affected by smarter, more equitable access. We are deliberately expanding our electrical design and test capabilities and adding to the ranks of our experienced team to achieve these goals.

We need dedicated engineers to burn down risk and improve reliability in our system like their life depends on it, because others' lives do. Electronics are where software meets the physical world, and so our electrical engineering team has a wide array of engineering skills and works with a variety of different teams. We need people who are comfortable working in different domains, thrive when working on a problem as part of a small group, and are able to communicate technical concepts clearly to a wide variety of stakeholders--software and mechanical engineers, hardware test and manufacturing, and operations and field support, to name a few. Our small team can get a lot done because our team members are strong individual contributors with a good grasp of electrical engineering fundamentals and the ability to define requirements for their systems, rapidly develop creative and simple solutions, and prove with testing that their work meets the rigors and edge-cases of real-world deployment.

The work

What You'll Do

You'll have your own projects but we haven't been saving an "intern project" - you'll be a full member of our team, and like with our other engineers, we'll work with you to find projects that align with your goals and interests and the team's and company's priorities.

Examples of previous projects for interns include:

• Prototyping new versions of our battery charging electronics to meet harsher environmental requirements in new countries where we're launching our service
• Architecting ground support electronics to assist the air vehicle with take-off and landing
• Developing and deploying test equipment such as EOL’s for design validation and production
• Supporting design validation campaigns to ensure that our avionics products meet design and reliability requirements
• Root cause investigation for our products from test, flight, or field issues.

Also

What You'll Bring

• Must have at least completed the second year of your Undergraduate studies. Masters and PhD students are also eligible.
• You've designed and tested a custom circuit board (it doesn't need to have worked - we'd love to hear about it!)
• You've worked on a project in or out of school that moved under its own power (plane, car, boat, quadcopter, rocket, balloon, rocket on a balloon, submarine, rover, etc. - we're not picky)
• You've collaborated on the above two things as part of a group - school club, competition team, as part of a job/internship, or just with friends
• In your application, we'd love to see either a sample of work you're proud of or a short note about your prior experience and how it relates to the three points above.

Nice to have

Bonus Qualifications

What Else You Should Know

Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco or Dallas office. We will host our Summer 2027 interns from May/June to August/September.

The hourly rate for this internship is $44 per hour. Additional benefits may include relocation support, a housing stipend, overtime pay, paid sick time, and other benefits, where applicable and subject to local requirements.

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.

• Experience in Robotics/Automation: Prior exposure to robotics systems, automation, or sensor data (through coursework, projects, or clubs) is a plus.
• Software Development: Exposure to object-oriented programming (e.g., C++ or Java) is a bonus.
• Cloud Computing/Big Data Tools: Familiarity with cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure) or big data tools (Spark, Hadoop) is helpful but not required.