Build Engineer Internship, Zipline
Spring 2026
$40 - 44/ Hour
May offer relocation support
5 days a week in office (South San Francisco, CA)
Transforming the way goods move
Job no longer available
Transforming the way goods move
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$40 - 44/ Hour
May offer relocation support
5 days a week in office (South San Francisco, CA)
1001+ employees
Company mission
To open up access to emergency medical care to everyone in the world.
Role
Who you are
- Current enrollment in a BS, MS, or PhD program in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
- Strong programming experience in at least one language (Rust, Python, Go, C++, or similar)
- Familiarity with software development tools (bazel, git, CI/CD systems, build tools, etc.)
- A problem-solving mindset, with curiosity to understand how systems work end-to-end
- Strong communication skills and eagerness to collaborate with engineers across disciplines
- Ability to work full-time onsite during the internship season
- Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco or Dallas office. We will host our Spring 2026 interns from January to April
What the job involves
- The Developer Productivity team at Zipline empowers our engineers to build safe and reliable software faster
- We design and maintain the internal tools, pipelines, and workflows that enable our autonomy, firmware, avionics, and flight software teams to innovate at scale
- From improving the performance of our CI/CD system to making code reviews smoother, we create the foundation that lets Zipline engineers focus on building world-class delivery drones. Our work directly impacts the speed, reliability, and safety of the systems that power Zipline’s mission to transform logistics and save lives
- As a Developer Productivity Intern, you’ll help build the systems and tools that keep our engineering teams moving quickly and safely
- You’ll work on projects that improve how engineers write, test, and deploy their code—directly impacting the quality and reliability of our autonomous aircraft
- Along the way, you’ll get exposure to a wide variety of engineering domains at Zipline and collaborate with experienced mentors who are excited to share their expertise
- This role is a unique opportunity to learn about developer experience, cloud systems, and drone technology all at once
- Contribute to maintaining and improving our CI/CD pipelines
- Build internal tools (such as dashboards or bots) that make our engineers’ lives easier
- Work with experienced engineers to define and deliver features that improve developer workflows
- Help improve the speed and reliability of automated testing and builds
- Participate in real-world debugging, gaining insight into how large engineering systems operate
- Learn how infrastructure investments directly support autonomous aircraft development
Our take
Zipline is transforming the way goods move by creating the first logistics system that serves all humans equally via a drone delivery service. As the first emergency drone logistics operation, Zipline is fundamentally changing how we transport emergency medical supplies and has expanded into commercial deliveries. It's partnered with several major companies, including Walmart.
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. It is also aiming to start commercial deliveries to individual households in the near future. With big companies such as Amazon and Walmart examining “instant” delivery options, Zipline has a proven track record and the equipment and logistics in place to provide such services. 2023 funding pushed Zipline's valuation to a staggering $4.2 billion, indicating a bright future.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
34% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Apr 2023
$330m
SERIES F
Jul 2021
$250m
SERIES E
Total funding: $813.7m
Company benefits
- Generous parental leave
- Generous vacation policy
- Monthly wellness stipend
- Monthly team events
- Healthcare, vision, and dental
- Healthy, delicious meals and snacks
- Dog-friendly offices
Company HQ
South San Francisco, CA
Leadership
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.
Salary benchmarks
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