Applications Engineer Intern (Summer 2027)

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. 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.

About The Ground Systems Deployment Team

The 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.

About the Role

Do you want to directly influence a wide range of engineering challenges arising from real-world, fast-paced operations? As an Applications Engineer Intern, you are the technical specialist responsible for solving application-specific challenges related to the deployment of our infrastructure in diverse environments. You take a rigorous systems-based approach to problem-solving. Your primary mission is to identify, validate, and integrate off-the-shelf (OTS) systems and commercially available products that meet our rigorous ground infrastructure requirements.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development, testing, and deployment of system improvements for the Platform 2 system supporting ground systems, commercial operations, and new deployments.
• Develop and implement technical solutions for specialized application needs, including lifting apparatus for maintenance or weather stations for localized flight safety.
• Evaluate, select, and manage relationships with external vendors to source high-availability, low-cost commercially available products that fulfill critical system requirements.
• Work with the engineering and deployments organization to refine site requirements and transform them into deployable systems that fulfill first-principles needs.
• Define the necessary handover materials and processes to move new application solutions into a sustaining operations trajectory.

Requirements

• You must have completed the second year of your undergraduate studies, pursuing a degree in Electrical/Mechanical Engineering or a related field. Masters and PhD students are also eligible.
• Proficiency in troubleshooting hardware and software systems, data collection and analysis, and collaborating with stakeholders to address engineering challenges.
• Experience in reading data sheets, layouts, or schematics.
• Possessing CAD skills (Siemens NX, Solidworks, etc.) and any machine shop/prototyping experience is a plus.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to simplify complex technical information into clear, repeatable technical instructions.
• Demonstrated strong project management skills, including creating timelines, leading meetings, and providing cross-functional updates.
• Willingness to travel and work outdoors at test sites for hands-on development and testing.
• A problem-solving approach with a drive for continuous improvement in a dynamic, collaborative setting.
• Technical curiosity and a passion for user-centric design. Self-directed with the ability to independently manage tasks.
• Eager to learn and grow through building strong relationships with operations and engineering teams.

Pay

The hourly rate for this internship is $40 per hour.

Schedule

This internship is a full-time position, in-person at our South San Francisco office. We will host our Summer 2027 interns from (May/June - August/September).

Benefits

• Relocation support
• Housing stipend
• Overtime pay
• Paid sick time
• Other benefits, where applicable and subject to local requirements