Aircraft Software Integration Intern (Spring 2027)

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 32,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Housing stipend

Relocation support

Paid sick time

Job summary

Zipline, a leader in autonomous drone delivery, seeks an Autonomy Software Engineer Intern to join the Software Integration Team in South San Francisco. You will help develop integrated autonomy features, bridging mission logic, real-time systems, and validation frameworks, with embedded aircraft software and simulation tools.

You will work across planning, perception, and controls, contributing to features like emergency landings and dynamic delivery constraints, while ensuring safety,

Qualifications

• Experience developing software in robotics, aerospace, autonomous vehicles, or other safety-critical embedded systems.
• Experience in Rust, C++, or C.
• Hands-on experience with robotics testing, including simulation.

Responsibilities

• Work on integration of complex autonomy features, spanning embedded flight software, real-time behavior logic, and mission-critical runtime systems.
• Implement core vehicle software in Rust, with a focus on performance, safety, and observability in safety-critical environments.
• Develop tooling to support validation, including software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing for rapid iteration and safe experimentation.
• Partner with systems engineering and autonomy teams to define real-world success metrics and build the interfaces and logging infrastructure to track them.

Skills

Robotics software

Rust

C++

C

Systems thinking

Robotics testing

Cross-functional collaboration

Motivated / proactive

Tools

Rust

C++

C

Job description

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 Software Integration Team

Are you a deeply technical software engineer drawn to the complexity of real-world autonomy systems? Do you thrive at the intersection of robotics, embedded software, and systems integration, where your code directly influences high-stakes, physical outcomes? At Zipline, we operate the world’s largest autonomous delivery network—and we’re building the tools and infrastructure to scale that system safely, globally, and intelligently.

Our team is responsible for decision making component of the aircraft. We write the software that executes missions, control behaviors on the aircraft such as lowering the zip for a delivery or providing safety critical functionality like responding to a fault and flying back home as soon as possible. We work with cloud, motion planning, perception, controls and firmware teams.

The Role

We're looking for a Autonomy Software Engineer Intern to join our team building integrated autonomy features and push them across the finish line into production. This role is not about building web apps or backend dashboards—it’s about working at the frontier of autonomous flight: bridging mission logic, real-time systems, autonomy behaviors, and validation frameworks.

You’ll work across planning, perception, and controls subsystems, shaping how autonomous features like emergency landings, route adaptations, and dynamic delivery constraints behave in flight. Your work will integrate embedded aircraft software with simulation infrastructure, telemetry systems, and flight operations to ensure features launch with robust performance, measurable safety, and high availability.

What You’ll Do

• Work on integration of complex autonomy features, spanning embedded flight software, real-time behavior logic, and mission-critical runtime systems.
• Implement core vehicle software in Rust, with a focus on performance, safety, and observability in safety-critical environments.
• Develop tooling to support validation, including software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing for rapid iteration and safe experimentation.
• Partner with systems engineering and autonomy teams to define real-world success metrics and build the interfaces and logging infrastructure to track them.

What You’ll Bring

• Experience developing software in robotics, aerospace, autonomous vehicles, or other safety-critical embedded systems.
• Experience in Rust, C++, or C
• Strong systems-thinking mindset, with an interest to integrate cross-disciplinary software under tight constraints (e.g. timing, safety, power).
• Hands-on experience with robotics testing, including simulation.
• Ability and interest to work cross-functionally across different domains (hardware, software, cloud)
• A go-getter attitude - motivation to get things and find the answers to make it happen

What Else You Should Know

Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco office. We will host our Spring 2027 interns from January to April/May.

Candidates are limited to three (3) applications within a 30-day period.

The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, and working location. The total compensation package for each role may also include: a housing stipend; overtime pay; relocation support; paid sick time; and more.

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.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit,

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.