--- title: 'Firmware Engineer Intern (Summer 2027) at Zipline' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/firmware-engineer-intern-summer-2027-zipline-south-san-francisco-2a8hjc8mnym0' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-18' --- # Firmware Engineer Intern (Summer 2027) at Zipline - **Company:** Zipline - **Location:** South San Francisco, CA - **Posted:** 2026-10-09 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18 - **Apply:** https://www.zipline.com/open-roles/8020865003?gh_jid=8020865003 ## 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. ## About the Firmware Team The firmware team owns the embedded firmware on all of our microcontroller systems on our aircraft and delivery system. We range from the application layer to the platform and foundation it’s built on. Including bootloaders, RTOS integration, serial and ethernet communication, up to battery management and motor control. ## The Role Zipline aircraft depend on embedded firmware to execute critical flight and safety functions across a network of microcontrollers and embedded Linux computers. This software must perform reliably as aircraft move from manufacturing into delivery operations at field sites around the world, including locations that are difficult to access over a network. You will own C++ firmware and supporting tools that are critical to the safety and operation of these systems. While making the system more observable and easier to diagnose at scale. Working alongside electrical, mechanical, embedded Linux, and systems engineers, you will turn hardware behavior and flight data into reliable, maintainable software for deployed aircraft. ## What You'll Do - Design and build C++ firmware for a distributed system of aircraft microcontrollers. - Develop reliable Ethernet, serial, and other microcontroller communication interfaces. - Define platform-level interfaces and reusable firmware components that support multiple aircraft subsystems. - Own the predictable and reliable performance of our microcontroller systems and the communication buses that connect them, across startup, real-time operation, fault handling, and recovery. - Optimize real-time behavior, including CPU utilization, memory usage, scheduling latency, timing jitter, and resource contention - Develop metrics, monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities to prepare the system for field deployment at scale - Develop Rust-based tooling and software-in-the-loop simulations to test and validate firmware behavior. ## What You'll Bring You are a person who: - Is passionate about learning about firmware, realtime systems, Zipline’s aircraft and systems, and our mission. - Has prior internship or design team experience. - Has experience with writing C or C++. - Has excellent grades in embedded systems classes. It is expected that you will be onsite in South San Francisco 5 days / week for this internship. Rising seniors are preferred. What Else You Should Know Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco. We will host our Summer 2027 interns from May to June/September. Candidates are limited to three (3) applications within a 30-day period. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, and working location. The total compensation package for each role may also include: a housing stipend; overtime pay; relocation support; paid sick time; and more. 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. We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply! 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 - [Hardware Test Technician, Avionics](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-test-technician-avionics-zipline-south-san-francisco-p5cvzv7pwjqv) — South San Francisco, CA - [PLM & Configuration Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/plm-configuration-manager-zipline-south-san-francisco-pm2st8m7ej2v) — South San Francisco, CA - [Mobile Test Site Project Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/mobile-test-site-project-manager-zipline-esparto-eajf10eqkn5h) — Esparto, CA / Half Moon Bay, CA / South San Francisco, CA - [Senior Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manufacturing-engineer-zipline-south-san-francisco-e0phbz4e2rk4) — South San Francisco, CA - [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer - Long Range Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-long-range-platform-zipline-south-san-francisco-aj84gq64gvsh) — South San Francisco, CA - [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Towers](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-towers-zipline-south-san-francisco-21pe6rqvm5ky) — South San Francisco, CA - [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Dropbox](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-dropbox-zipline-south-san-francisco-h830ctztcqtc) — South San Francisco, CA - [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Avionics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-avionics-zipline-south-san-francisco-911tt0ycfrvx) — South San Francisco, CA - [Senior Power Electronics Engineer - Ground Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-power-electronics-engineer-ground-systems-zipline-south-san-francisco-37x2bvp3esqk) — South San Francisco, CA - [Senior/Staff Electrical Engineer, Ground Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-electrical-engineer-ground-systems-zipline-south-san-francisco-ca3ct8d8pz0g) — South San Francisco, CA