Embedded Firmware Intern — C++ for Flight Systems

Zipline; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 45,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

Zipline is seeking interns to work onsite in South San Francisco on embedded firmware for our drone systems. You will design and build C++ firmware for distributed onboard microcontrollers, develop reliable communication interfaces, and create platform‑level components.

You will collaborate with hardware, embedded Linux, and systems teams to translate hardware behavior into dependable software. The internship requires on-site work five days a week during Spring 2027, with rising seniors

Qualifications

• Interest in firmware and real-time systems.
• Prior internship or design team experience.
• Experience writing C or C++.
• Excellent grades in embedded systems courses.

Responsibilities

• Design and build C++ firmware for a distributed system of aircraft microcontrollers.
• Develop reliable Ethernet, serial, and other interfaces.
• Define platform‑level interfaces and reusable firmware components.
• Own the performance of microcontroller systems across startup and recovery.
• Optimize real‑time behavior including latency and resource contention.
• Develop metrics and debugging capabilities for field deployment at scale.
• Develop Rust tooling and SIL simulations to test firmware.

Skills

C/C++ programming

Embedded systems

Internship experience

Tools

Rust

SIL simulations

Job description

Zipline is seeking interns to work onsite in South San Francisco on embedded firmware for our drone systems. You will design and build C++ firmware for distributed onboard microcontrollers, develop reliable communication interfaces, and create platform‑level components.

You will collaborate with hardware, embedded Linux, and systems teams to translate hardware behavior into dependable software. The internship requires on-site work five days a week during Spring 2027, with rising seniors