Controls Engineer Intern, Zipline
Fall 2026
3-5 days a week in office
Transforming the way goods move
Be an early applicant
Transforming the way goods move
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
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
- Your applied math skills stand out even among aerospace engineers
- You think simulations and working with hardware are both fun
- You have owned and developed controls solutions for a team project, thesis, or competition
- Exposure in one or more of the following areas: precision integrated inertial navigation, dynamic modeling of complex systems, linear control analysis, or optimal control with uncertainty
- Software engineering skills, preferably with both embedded software (C, C++, Rust) and technical computing (MATLAB, python, Julia, etc.). Experience with Github and working in a multi-developer environment is an advantage
What the job involves
- Our Flight Controls team is at the heart of Zipline’s product success - we are responsible for developing, testing and maintaining some of the critical flight software systems that enable our aircraft to complete missions autonomously, from takeoff through to predicting and executing a successful delivery, through to landing safely and accurately
- We develop novel solutions to give us the responsiveness, robustness and quality we need to ensure our delivery platforms can function in a wide range of increasingly challenging conditions and truly serve everyone in the world equally
- Zipline’s people thrive on finding elegant solutions to complex problems, given what exists today and what we can develop to maturity quickly and confidently
- We stay close to our customers, learn what really works, and find where we can put the leverage to make a big difference for them now
- As an intern on the Flight Controls team, you will learn how we fly autonomous aircraft in a range of challenging flight conditions
- Using data from flight testing and simulation as well as our global fleet of customer aircraft, you will be looking for insights that can help improve our design
- Through this you’ll have the opportunity to make changes to our systems that will measurably improve our product - your work will not just be theoretical; you will have the opportunity to see your contributions fly!
- Contribute to the design, implementation, testing and release of innovative flight algorithms that improve the operational performance of our vehicle controllers
- Create tools and tests to demonstrate your design performance and protect against software regressions, using both theoretical guarantees and simulations
- Analyze flight data to assess recent changes and upgrades, looking for regressions and potential areas for future improvement
- Design onboard integrity tests to communicate when the system performance is degraded
- Present key results and changes to the broader engineering team
- Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco or Dallas office. We will host our Fall 2026 interns from September to December
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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