Autonomous Systems Validation Intern

Socket.dev; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 69,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking a Software Systems Validation Intern to help evaluate the software behind our autonomous drone delivery system. You’ll contribute to building tests, tools, metrics, and visualizations that reveal system performance and reliability before flight.

This full-time, in-person internship at our South San Francisco office runs January to April 2027. You’ll learn to work across robotics domains and collaborate with engineers in autonomy, data analysis, and systems engineering.

Qualifications

• You must have completed at least the second year of your undergraduate studies in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related field.
• Coursework or project experience in robotics, controls, estimation, navigation, perception, or software development.
• Familiarity with testing, debugging, or validation methodologies (academic or project-based).
• Experience with data analysis using Python, SQL, or similar.
• Basic proficiency with a compiled language such as C/C++ or Rust.

Responsibilities

• Support the design and execution of test scenarios across the autonomous software stack to validate system-level requirements.
• Help develop and improve validation tools, workflows, and automation.
• Build visualizations or metrics that highlight performance trends, gaps, or regressions.
• Work with test infrastructure and data platform teams to run validation pipelines.
• Analyze results and contribute to identifying root causes of failures or unexpected behavior.
• Document findings and communicate insights to engineering stakeholders.

Skills

Python

SQL

C/C++

Robotics concepts

Data analysis

Education

Second year undergraduate in CS/Software Engineering/Robotics

Job description

Zipline is seeking a Software Systems Validation Intern to help evaluate the software behind our autonomous drone delivery system. You’ll contribute to building tests, tools, metrics, and visualizations that reveal system performance and reliability before flight.

This full-time, in-person internship at our South San Francisco office runs January to April 2027. You’ll learn to work across robotics domains and collaborate with engineers in autonomy, data analysis, and systems engineering.