--- title: 'Commercial Strategy & Operations Intern (Spring 2027) at Zipline' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/commercial-strategy-operations-intern-spring-2027-zipline-austin-v7krgqbz2tv5' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-06' --- # Commercial Strategy & Operations Intern (Spring 2027) at Zipline - **Company:** Zipline - **Location:** Austin, TX / Houston, TX / Phoenix Arizona, United States / San Antonio, TX - **Posted:** 2026-08-31 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06 - **Apply:** https://www.zipline.com/open-roles/7982296003?gh_jid=7982296003 ## Job description ## About Zipline Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. ## The Role Every Zipline market grows differently. Customer behavior, commercial priorities, competition, partnerships, and local opportunities vary from city to city. We're looking for a Commercial Strategy & Operations Intern to help turn those local realities into clear priorities, better decisions, and measurable market growth. You'll support the team responsible for understanding how your market is performing and where we can improve. You'll work with data, build analyses and reporting, contribute to planning, and help make sure cross-functional teams are aligned on the work that matters most. Success means helping the organization move faster, operate more effectively, and identify opportunities to improve customer, merchant, and market performance. You'll partner closely with Commercial, Operations, Marketing, Analytics, Community Engagement, and other teams across the organization. You'll learn how a fast-growing marketplace business works while gaining hands-on experience solving ambiguous problems and translating insights into action. ## What You'll Do - Support weekly and monthly business reviews by pulling data, analyzing performance, and turning findings into clear takeaways and actions. - Build and maintain reporting on key customer, merchant, commercial, and ops metrics. - Analyze customer behavior, merchant performance, market trends, and operational data to identify opportunities and risks. - Help develop business cases, forecasts, and recommendations for growth and operational initiatives. - Partner with cross-functional teams to coordinate priorities, document decisions, track action items, and follow up on execution. - Improve processes, templates, and operating rhythms that help teams plan and execute more effectively. - Research competitors, local market dynamics, and emerging opportunities to inform commercial strategy. - Prepare concise presentations and ad hoc analyses for leadership and partner teams. - Own a defined commercial strategy or operations project from problem framing and analysis through recommendation and implementation support. ## What You'll Bring - Must have completed the second year of a bachelor's degree in business, economics, finance, data analytics, engineering, marketing, or a related field. Master’s are also eligible. - Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to break down complex questions and communicate the answer clearly - Proficiency with Excel or Google Sheets; experience with SQL, dashboards, or other data tools is a plus. - Strong attention to detail and the ability to organize multiple projects, deadlines, and stakeholders. - Clear written and verbal communication skills, with comfort presenting findings and recommendations. - Curiosity about how businesses grow and how strong operating practices turn strategy into results. - A proactive, collaborative approach and willingness to take ownership in a fast-moving environment. - Prior internship, campus leadership, project, or work experience involving analysis, operations, strategy, or cross-functional collaboration is a plus. - Must be able to work onsite and travel frequently throughout Austin, Texas, San Antonio, Texas, Houston, Texas or Phoenix, Arizona. Requires transportation (not company provided) and the ability to independently travel to operational sites, events, communities, and partner locations as needed. What Else You Should Know This internship is a full-time position, in-person at our Dallas, Texas, Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, California OR Phoenix, Arizona office. We will host our Summer 2027 interns (May/June - August/September). Zipline is unable to sponsor work visas for applicants to this position. The hourly rate for this internship is $30 per hour. Additional benefits may include relocation support, a housing stipend, overtime pay, paid sick time, and other benefits, where applicable and subject to local requirements. Candidates are limited to three (3) applications within a 30-day period. Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities. Zipline is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your point of contact at Zipline know if you require any accommodations throughout your interview process. Voluntary Self-Identification For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file. As set forth in Zipline ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law. ## About Zipline ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Zipline is an American robotics company that operates the world’s largest autonomous drone delivery service, transporting medical supplies, food, and retail goods across multiple continents. - **Entity Type**: Private (early-stage startup) - **Headquarters**: South San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: March 2014 - **Founders**: Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, Keenan Wyrobek, Ryan Oksenhorn, William Hetzler ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Logistics / Drone delivery - **Target customers**: B2B (healthcare systems, governments, retailers like Walmart and Chipotle) and B2C (home delivery via the Zipline app) - **Mission or purpose statement**: “Build the first logistics system that serves all people equally” – initially focused on saving lives by delivering blood and medicine to remote communities, now expanded to instant urban delivery. ## Products & Services - **Platform 1 (P1)**: Long-range, rural delivery drone. Carries up to 4 lbs, roundtrip range 120+ miles, cruise speed 60 mph. Uses parachute delivery. Designed for enterprise, government, and healthcare supply chains. - **Platform 2 (P2)**: Urban/suburban home delivery drone. Carries up to 8 lbs, service radius 10 miles (or 24 miles one way), cruise speed 70 mph. Delivers via a tether from up to 300 ft, allowing contactless drop-off. Launched in 2025 and used for food, retail, and health products. - **Zipping Points**: Modular ground stations that allow businesses to load orders onto drones without specialized equipment. - **FlightIQ**: Advanced onboard autonomy and perception suite for safe navigation and delivery. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available - **Key Metric**: 2 million commercial deliveries completed (as of January 2026) and 130 million autonomous miles flown.[wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipline_(drone_delivery_company))[zipline-fact-sheet](https://www.zipline.com/about/zipline-fact-sheet) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not disclosed in available sources. Key partners include Walmart, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Crumbl, Blaze Pizza, Wendy’s, and many other restaurant brands. In healthcare, works with more than 5,000 hospitals and health centers. - **Growth Signals**: Expanded into urban home delivery in 2025 (P2) with service in Pea Ridge, Arkansas and 20+ communities in Dallas-Fort Worth. Obtained FAA authorization for beyond visual line of sight operations. Reports 56% decrease in maternal mortality and 66% decrease in missed malaria treatments in served regions.[zipline-fact-sheet](https://www.zipline.com/about/zipline-fact-sheet) ## Competitive Advantages - **Autonomous drone fleet**: One of the world’s largest commercial deployments of autonomous robots, with custom software running on Nvidia chips. - **FAA approval**: All operations and aircraft are FAA-approved, including pioneering use of Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM). - **Quieter than road vehicles**: Drones hover high and descend on a tether, generating noise lower than common neighborhood sounds. - **Extensive testing**: One of the largest aviation testing campaigns, with operations in rain, wind, and storms. - **Integrated logistics platform**: Beyond drones, Zipline provides warehousing, inventory management, cold chain storage, and fulfillment software. ## Strategic Focus - Scaling the Platform 2 urban delivery network across the U.S., particularly through partnerships with major retailers and restaurants. - Deepening healthcare impact by expanding into new countries and product categories (prescriptions, groceries, convenience items). - Continuing to reduce delivery times and environmental footprint (0 emissions per delivery, compared to automotive delivery). ## Why Work Here - **Culture values**: Ownership & Accountability, Direct Feedback & Communication, Continuous Improvement, Customer Obsession, Servant Leadership (as stated on careers page). Emphasis on “Make it matter” and mission-driven work.[careers](https://www.zipline.com/careers) - **Work environment**: Headquartered in South San Francisco with hardware and software teams. The company assembles its drones in America. Likely on-site given the hardware focus; remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated. - **Impact**: Opportunity to work on life-saving technology (60,000+ lives saved) and shape the future of instant logistics. - **Engineering culture**: Build and iterate on autonomous systems, airspace deconfliction, and large-scale robotics deployments. ## Sources 1. [Zipline Careers](https://www.zipline.com/careers) 2. [Zipline Homepage](https://www.zipline.com/) 3. [About Zipline](https://www.zipline.com/about) 4. [Zipline Fact Sheet](https://www.zipline.com/about/zipline-fact-sheet) 5. [Wikipedia - Zipline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipline_(drone_delivery_company)) 6. [Greenhouse Careers Page](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/flyzipline) ## Other roles at Zipline - [Senior/Staff Systems Modeling Engineer, Electric Propulsion](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-systems-modeling-engineer-electric-propulsion-zipline-south-san-xvtyrwb7gcss) — South San Francisco California, United States - [Aircraft Software Integration Intern (Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/aircraft-software-integration-intern-summer-2027-zipline-south-san-francisco-qzhqteyn3z8h) — South San Francisco California, United States - [Aircraft Software Integration Intern (Spring 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/aircraft-software-integration-intern-spring-2027-zipline-south-san-francisco-869y0r4pmkrj) — South San Francisco California, United States - [People Partner](https://feeny.ai/job/people-partner-zipline-kigali-xhgqah3xea2d) — Kigali, Rwanda - [Concept and Architecture Engineering Contractor](https://feeny.ai/job/concept-and-architecture-engineering-contractor-zipline-south-san-francisco-ttns1vrthcc8) — South San Francisco California, United States - [Mechanical Design Engineer - Towers](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-design-engineer-towers-zipline-south-san-francisco-california-tcdm0q3t7ex4) — South San Francisco California, United States - [Director of Industry Standards](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-industry-standards-zipline-south-san-francisco-california-xfmf6syhmfnh) — South San Francisco California, United States - [Flight Test Site Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/flight-test-site-lead-zipline-amarillo-texas-yjcn58g0gb1v) — Amarillo Texas, United States - [Flight Test Operator](https://feeny.ai/job/flight-test-operator-zipline-amarillo-texas-j156mq0pv54x) — Amarillo Texas, United States - [Launch & Scale Intern (Summer 2027)](https://feeny.ai/job/launch-scale-intern-summer-2027-zipline-south-san-francisco-california-kmcdb5709dg3) — South San Francisco California, United States