Electrical Project Engineer Intern (Spring 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 Ground Systems Deployment Team

The Ground Systems Deployment and Construction team is responsible for turning bare ground into functional drone charging sites! We’re a broad, cross-functional team with skills across civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, and construction engineering with a mandate to deliver world-class construction execution with zero issues in the first 30 days, on-time and on-budget, using scalable, cost-optimized, and serviceable designs.

The work

The Role

The Ground System Deployment and Construction Engineering team is seeking a curious, collaborative Electrical Engineering Intern to support the design and deployment of Zipline’s Ground Systems across a variety of sites and applications.

In this role, you’ll gain hands-on experience with commercial and light-industrial electrical distribution as applied to an autonomous drone delivery network. Working alongside experienced engineers, you’ll help with utility coordination, site-level electrical design, structure-level wiring approaches, and technical documentation.

You’ll collaborate with mechanical, structural, electrical, and deployments teams to support real-world projects and contribute to problem-solving as new challenges arise. This internship also offers opportunities to explore new design ideas and assist with improvements to our engineering processes. You’ll work and become familiar with the National Electrical Code and apply the concepts to site and infrastructure designs.

The internship is based in South San Francisco, with occasional travel within California and the U.S. for site visits or field support.

The work

What You'll Do

• Support engineers with research, drafting, and documentation for electrical distribution and structure-level wiring designs aligned with NEC and relevant standards.
• Assist with UL/TUV certification efforts by gathering documentation, preparing technical materials, and coordinating with engineering partners.
• Help prepare materials, track communication, and support interactions with deployment and construction teams
• Implement feedback from Deployment and Construction teams to continuously optimize designs for more efficient build and scale
• Design electrical distribution of commercial and light industrial ground system projects per NEC and relevant applicable codes and standards.
• Design next generation charging structure level electrical wiring and installation approaches.
• Evaluate all options and a lean budget, select best vendors to ensure reliable and quality services and products.
• Help document project risks, prepare materials for meetings, support communication across teams, and occasionally participate in site visits for field observations.
• Create documentation to ensure quality and process refinement between each build to help with consistent scale
• Collaborate with engineering and business teams to understand customer needs and contribute to improvements in Ground Systems infrastructure.
• Travel to commercial and flight test sites may be required on an ad hoc basis.

Also

What You'll Bring

Comfort with hands-on work and openness to occasional travel (if needed).

What Else You Should Know

This internship is a full-time position, in-person at our South San Francisco office. We will host our Spring 2027 interns from (January 2027 - April 2027).

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.

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.

• You must have completed the second year of your undergraduate studies, with relevant coursework (e.g., circuits, power systems, construction). Master's and PhD students are also eligible.
• Strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and a willingness to ask questions and learn.
• Familiarity with engineering tools or concepts such as CAD/ECAD, electrical modeling, or basic simulation software. (Revit, Bluebeam Revu, AutoCAD, NX)
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, especially when summarizing technical information.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced environment and support a wide range of tasks.
• Curiosity, initiative, and a proactive approach to problem-solving.
• An open mind to help us bring Zipline’s service to new and existing customers!