Autonomous Drone Motion Planning Intern (In-Person, SSF)

Telemetry Today LLC; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 34,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Housing stipend

Relocation support

Paid sick time

Job summary

Zipline, the world’s largest autonomous drone delivery service, is seeking interns for the Motion Planning team in South San Francisco. You’ll gather data, measure system performance, and drive next‑generation algorithms and trajectory designs to enable safe, scalable deliveries.

Interns work in a fast‑paced, collaborative environment with flight-test data and simulation tools, interacting daily with the fleet.

Qualifications

• Pursuing BS, MS, or PhD in engineering, CS, or robotics.
• Experience with C++ or Rust.
• Familiarity with planning and search algorithms or trajectory optimization.
• Familiarity solving problems involving real-world physics and dynamics.
• Strong engineering intuition to keep things simple and solve the right problems.

Responsibilities

• Develop and evaluate motion planning algorithms for autonomous aircraft.
• Build simulation and analysis tools to compare planner behavior.
• Use flight data to identify long-tail issues, validate safety metrics, and guide improvements.
• Transition experimental solutions to scalable, real-world applications.
• Collaborate closely with team members and share findings across teams.
• Interact daily with flight testing ops and data from the fleet.

Skills

BS/MS/PhD in eng/CS/robotics

C++ or Rust

Planning algorithms

Trajectory optimization

Physics-based problems

Engineering intuition

Education

BS/MS/PhD in engineering/CS/robotics

Tools

C++

Rust

Job description

Zipline, the world’s largest autonomous drone delivery service, is seeking interns for the Motion Planning team in South San Francisco. You’ll gather data, measure system performance, and drive next‑generation algorithms and trajectory designs to enable safe, scalable deliveries.

Interns work in a fast‑paced, collaborative environment with flight-test data and simulation tools, interacting daily with the fleet.