Materials Engineer Intern (Spring & 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.

The work

The Role

Does aggressively tackling cross disciplinary projects from early conceptual stages through to full field deployment sound like the way you want to spend your time? Do you eliminate circular discussions by running a test or use your hands-on skills to build a prototype instead of scheduling another meeting?

At Zipline, your work is intended for the field, where customers are counting on it every day, so there is no time for ambiguous communication or unrealistic expectations. We need dedicated engineers to burn down risk and improve reliability in our system like their life depends on it– because others' lives do. If you thrive working with a fast-paced and driven team that focuses on only the most important goals, eliminates blockers, and executes with extreme practicality, keep reading!

Materials Engineers at Zipline go deep in their area of ownership, become experts in the problem domain, and prove with testing that their system meets the rigors and edge-cases of real-world deployment. We are composed of teams that are involved with everything from the earliest designs of a new system, to creating test and validation strategies, root-causing issues with existing systems, and much more.

The work

What You'll Do

• Materials interns can own a variety of big problems integral to our system! You can expect to:
• Perform materials characterization using tools such as section/mount/polish, optical microscopy, SEM/EDS, hardness testing, and mechanical testing.
• Support failure investigations by examining physical evidence, developing hypotheses, and identifying material or processdriven failure mechanisms.
• Evaluate the effects of manufacturing processes, surface condition, coatings, joining, and environmental exposure on component performance.
• Qualify material, supplier, or process changes through structured testing and data analysis.
• Analyze experimental data using Python, MATLAB, JMP, or similar tools and communicate conclusions through clear plots, images, and technical documentation.
• Develop or improve test methods, fixtures, procedures, and characterization workflows.
• Work cross-functionally with design, manufacturing, reliability, supplier quality, and test engineers to turn materials evidence into engineering decisions.
• Document your work so that others can easily understand key decisions made

Also

What You'll Bring

The most critical skill we’ve seen in prior entry-level candidates is robust experience designing and actually building multiple mechanical systems outside of the classroom. This is the component of your application we’re most excited about, so please ensure that you’ve included this work in your application. Examples of things previous interns have built include submarines, solar cars in the Australian outback, electric boats and airplanes, rockets, etc.

What Else You Should Know

Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco or Dallas office. We will host this intern from January to August/September.

The hourly rate for this internship is $40 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.

• You’ll bring strong fundamentals in materials science and mechanical behavior for identifying material or process driven failure mechanisms.
• You have hands-on experience through research, internships, or projects involving materials characterization, mechanical testing, manufacturing, or failure analysis.
• You have experience analyzing data and clearly communicating technical conclusions.
• You must have completed at least the second year of your Undergraduate studies in Materials Science & Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Masters and PhD students are also eligible.
• You’re comfortable working independently in a laboratory environment and troubleshooting experiments.
• You're quick to change direction when you realize you’ve made a mistake OR could achieve the same goal in a simpler way
• You bias to action and communicate consistently with your team to ensure everyone is focused on meeting the project goals on time
• You can anticipate, plan and schedule your own work
• You bring a “can do” attitude, because we have a lot of vital work to get done and only work with people who are invested in solving critical problems