Mechanical Engineering Internship, Zipline
Co-Op, Summer 2022
Bay Area, California
3-5 days a week in office
Transforming the way goods move
Job no longer available
Transforming the way goods move
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
Bay Area, California
3-5 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To build the world's first logistics system that serves all people equally.
Role
Who you are
- You’ll bring solid ME fundamentals for sizing parts and integrating into design with minimal help
- You’ll bring automation experience from working with actuators and Raspberry Pi’s (or similar)
- You’re well versed in CAD, and have designed multiple projects with it
- You’ve worked on complex projects that require mechanical, electrical, and software design
- You're quick to change direction when you realize you’ve made a mistake OR could achieve the same goal in a simpler way
- You bias to action and communicate consistently with your team to ensure everyone is focused on meeting the project goals on time
- You're excited to build on your design skills with brainstorms, design reviews, and failure mode analysis
- You can anticipate, plan and schedule your own work
- You bring a “can do” attitude, because we have a lot of vital work to get done and only work with people who are invested in solving critical problems
What the job involves
- Mechanical interns can own a variety of big problems integral to our system! Expect to:
- Design, build, and run testers that you develop to prove reliability of critical components
- Root cause failures in the field and develop a test to replicate the failure mode
- Use resources creatively to get products into testing to start learning quickly
- Document your work so that others can easily understand key decisions made
- Write and execute test plans to verify/meet requirements of products early
- Examples of previous projects included:
- Designing, building, testing, and running:
- A fully automated high-cycle fatigue tester to lifecycle parts to failure in a matter of days instead of months
- A fully automated structural truss torsion tester to ensure that our recovery system is designed to recover a zip each and every time without failure
- A wing cycle tester to burn down risk for each wing iteration and prove reliability with cycles
- A communications tower with integrated antennas and lightning protection meant to relay vital telemetry information from the zip to the operators during flight in addition to releasing into the field and providing on call troubleshooting support
Our take
Zipline is reinventing how the world moves goods - one flight at a time. What started as a bold idea to deliver life-saving medical supplies by drones has grown into the world's first logistics network designed to serve everyone, everywhere. From rushing blood and vaccines to remote clinics, to dropping off everyday essential for Walmart customers, Ziplines's autonomous drones are proving that fast, reliable delivery doesn't have to be limited by roads or geography.
Zipline has an edge over potential future competitors as the company has thousands of hours and over 35 million miles of flight to prove the system is safe and effective. It’s also one of the first companies to receive a full commercial operating certificate, putting Zipline in a strong position to continuously branch out to other markets.
The unicorn company operates globally and has signed its first government contract with Rwanda to provide up to 2 million drone deliveries by 2029. Beyond government partnerships, Zipline has its sight set on everyday consumers, preparing to launch commercial deliveries straight to individuals houses. With its Walmart collaboration expanding and even Chipotle orders taking to the skies in Texas, Zipline isn't just redefining delivery - it's aiming to reach every corner of commerce, with a future that looks as bright as its ambitions.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
34% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 12 rounds)
Mar 2026
$200m
SERIES H
Jan 2026
$600m
SERIES H
Total funding: $2.1bn
Company HQ
South San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Keller Rinaudo Cliffton
(Co-Founder & CEO)Having studied Economics and Biotechnology at Harvard, they worked for almost 11 months as a self-employed rock climber. They combined their academic and practical experience to co-found Zipline in July 2011.
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