Embedded Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)

Zipline; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 39,000 - 58,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

In-person at SF office

Job summary

Zipline in South San Francisco offers full-time internships on the Embedded Systems team to advance autonomous aircraft and ground systems. Interns work with cross-functional partners to tackle challenging problems, focusing on developing efficient, well-tested code close to hardware.

Ideal candidates are pursuing EE/CS/CE degrees, have completed at least two years, and are comfortable with C/C++, Python, or Rust.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a degree in EE, CS, or CE; second-year or higher completed.
• Strong C/C++, Python, or Rust programming skills for embedded systems.
• Experience with embedded camera interfaces (MIPI, GMSL2) and ISP tuning.
• Experience writing low-level drivers for sensors and actuators.
• Experience with real-time OS or embedded Linux.
• Ability to work in-person at South San Francisco office during Summer 2027.

Responsibilities

• Develop and test embedded software close to hardware for drones.
• Collaborate with mechanical and electrical teams on flight systems.
• Prototype and validate perception solutions for camera systems.
• Help scale flight and ground software with data-driven testing.
• Contribute to safe and reliable software architecture deployments.

Skills

C

C++

Python

Rust

Education

Electrical Engineering / Computer Science / Computer Engineering

Tools

CAN

SPI

UART

Embedded Linux

RTOS

Job description

• Zipline designs and operates the world’s largest drone delivery service providing access to critical medical supplies. Leading the way in drone delivery often means exceeding the capabilities of what’s available off the shelf, and as a result we need to engineer the majority of our system in-house. Doubling down on the reliability of our systems by writing embedded applications and drivers close to the hardware is a critical path to delivering to people whose lives will be meaningfully affected by smarter, more equitable access!
• We trust our team, so we’ll trust you. We’ll help you (and you’ll help us) find an area of technical ownership that you can dive deep into to define system requirements, develop creative and simple solutions, and prove with testing and data that your system meets the rigors and edge-cases of real-world deployment. We are a team that is constantly learning to improve our systems, and ourselves, and we can’t wait for you to join us!
• Design and develop a software platform for the new P2 Zip and the world’s cutest Droid delivery and dock system
• Scale our flight and distribution center software to allow upwards exponentially more deliveries per day
• Prototype, test, and refine next generation flight and ground systems working alongside our mechanical and electrical engineering teams
• Develop safe software architecture that will be deployed across the world
• Develop perception solutions for any weather and any real world environment
• Achieve safety and reliability goals beyond the current state of the art
• Zipline is looking for interns to join our Embedded Systems team to advance our autonomous aircraft and ground systems. In this role, you will work alongside cross-functional partners to develop solutions to some of our trickiest problems
• A lot goes into flying vital supplies autonomously, but doing so reliably and at scale is an even bigger challenge. From deploying embedded software to devices across the world, fault response and handling, launching & landing, all the way to integration with our customer’s physical & software systems, you will work with and learn from not only some of the most impressive embedded engineers in the field, but from a huge variety of our amazing Zipline team!
• Embedded interns own a variety of big problems integral to our system! Examples of previous projects included:
• Building an RF radio test setup to validate antenna performance of the flight compute at the production end-of-line. Responsibilities include owning the entire system—from RF signal injection, testing, and validation, to developing manufacturing software test suites, integrating with Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), and leveraging simulation to model and measure worst-case scenarios
• Develop firmware for a real-time coprocessor that manages high-frequency signals and I/O expansion for the Linux camera subsystem. Own the overall system design, contribute to board design revisions, and validate signal integrity, jitter, and clock alignment
• Building a high data rate voltage and current telemetry system that runs continuously in our RTOS using ADCs, I2C devices and GPIO interrupts. Testing this feature rigorously, deploying it to production globally, building data analysis tools to verify that the feature is working properly, and using this data to root-cause tricky failures to improve the reliability of our systems
• Rapidly iterating on the concept of a new perception system, integrating compute modules and sensor prototypes to fly a proof of concept ASAP and de-risk key aspects of the approach
• Working with operations teams to identify ways to improve our ground systems behavior to enable faster aircraft launch and landing. Prioritizing changes by obtaining engineering leadership buy‑in, and implementing them by using a variety of bench‑top and real flight-test methods to verify the code. Ultimately, rolling out the update to global operations!
• Our internships are full-time positions, in‑person at our South San Francisco office. We will host our Summer 2027 interns from (May/June - August/September)

You are comfortable getting feedback so that you can learn to write code that is efficient, easy‑to‑read, well‑tested, has friendly APIs, and incurs minimal technical debtBonus for having experience with embedded camera interfaces (MIPI, GMSL2, etc.), ISP tuning, and camera sensor bringupYou’ve had experience writing low level drivers for sensors and actuators, reading datasheets, and debugging hardware systemsYou’ve designed, built and/or deployed electromechanical systems or robots, inside or outside the classroomYou’re familiar with basic electrical engineering concepts, such as reading schematics, debugging with an oscilloscope, and communication protocols (CAN, SPI, UART, etc)You’re comfortable working in one of C, C++, Python, or Rust, and have developed software for a real time operating system or embedded LinuxPursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or Computer EngineeringMust have at least completed the second year of your Undergraduate studies. Masters and PhD students are also eligible