Long Range Platform Embedded Firmware 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 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 Long Range Platform Engineering Team

As part of the Long Range Platform Engineering Team, the Embedded Firmware team develops and maintains the software that runs directly on Zipline’s vehicle and ground-system hardware. Our work spans device drivers, sensor and actuator interfaces, power management, communications, fault detection, and safety-critical behavior. Team members collaborate closely with electrical, mechanical, systems, test, and operations teams to bring new hardware to life and troubleshoot real-world issues. By making every embedded component reliable, observable, and safe, we help ensure that each delivery vehicle can complete its mission successfully.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and test embedded software that supports Zipline’s vehicles, batteries, chargers, or ground systems.
• Work hands-on with hardware in the lab, learning how software communicates with sensors, power electronics, and other onboard components.
• Use logs, test equipment, and experiments to investigate unexpected behavior and turn findings into reliable fixes.
• Build automated tests that catch regressions early and help ensure our systems behave safely in real-world conditions.
• Own a scoped project from initial requirements through validation, with guidance from an experienced engineering mentor.
• Participate in design discussions, code reviews, and cross-functional work with electrical, mechanical, systems, and test engineers.
• Learn how safety-critical products move from an idea to deployed hardware while making a measurable contribution to Zipline’s mission.

Requirements

• Pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer 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 firmware problems.
• Experience with embedded platforms (i.e. ESP32, STM, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc.).
• Experience with C/C++.
• Proficiency in Unix.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• 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 firmware development environment.

Schedule

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.