Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building the first instant logistics system that serves all humans equally. Leveraging expertise in robotics and autonomy, Zipline designs, builds, and operates a fleet of cutting edge, autonomous delivery drones. We serve tens of millions of people around the world.

Joining Zipline’s Emerging Talent program as an intern is an opportunity to contribute to our promise of building a system that provides equitable access to critical healthcare supplies for millions of people. We believe that internships are more than just opportunities to learn by watching or doing low level tasks. We expect our interns to take on meaningful work that actively contributes to moving Zipline’s mission forward, while learning real-world skills that will serve them in their careers for the long term.

Join us, and build the future of logistics with the best humans around!

About the Motion Planning Team

The Motion Planning team is responsible for developing the cutting-edge technologies needed to ensure our drones are safe at scale. Specifically, we are developing a software stack that allows our drones to deliver packages in high winds, transition between rotor-borne and fixed-wing flight, and dock and undock all while avoiding other aircraft, drones, and ground obstacles. This involves working with the perception team to identify obstacles and working with the controls team to safely maneuver around them.

The Role

We believe access to medical care should not depend on your GPS coordinates. In service of our mission to operate at global scale, we’re growing our Autonomy capabilities in order to expand quickly and safely into new products and locations, with the ultimate goal of delivering essential packages right to your doorstep. Our team is looking for an intern who is passionate about developing autonomous aerial systems for the real world.

What You'll Do

• Work with a team of robotics software engineers to develop motion planning software for our fleet of autonomous delivery drones
• Develop new simulation tools that allow us to determine the impact of new features before we deploy them to the field

What You'll Bring

• Must have at least completed the second year of your Undergraduate studies. Masters and PhD students are also eligible.
• Experience with C++ or Rust
• Familiarity with planning and search algorithms OR trajectory optimization
• Familiarity solving problems involving real-world physics and geometry
• Solid engineering intuition for keeping things simple and solving the right problems

What Else You Need to Know