Flight Test Engineer Intern (Spring 2027)

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

9d•Onsite

About The Position

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service, aiming to serve all humans equally by providing access to essential goods. They design, build, and operate an autonomous logistics system, making deliveries globally. The company emphasizes practical problem-solving, real-world challenges, rapid growth, and building systems with a meaningful impact. The Flight Test Engineering team specifically designs flight test courses and methods to support system validation, developing custom software for complex maneuvers and collaborating with engineers to test critical edge cases. They utilize expertise in system design, statistics, flight physics, and experimental methods, partnering with various engineering teams. The internship offers hands-on exposure to industry-leading autonomous systems. As a Flight Test Engineering Intern, you will analyze flight test data logs to determine test effectiveness, identify root causes of success/failure, and track performance trends. You will also contribute to designing new flight test campaigns, defining test scope, methods, and post-processing. This role is for individuals excited about validating complex robotic systems, problem-solving, and gaining experience in autonomy software, data analysis, and systems engineering.

Requirements

Must have completed the second year of undergraduate studies in physics, mathematics, mechanical, aerospace, system engineering, computer science, electrical engineering or related fields. Masters and PhD students are also eligible.
Strong mathematical and physics background.
Experience in autonomous vehicle/ robotic system integration and testing work.
Experience in data process, visualization.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

Analyze flight test data logs using custom scripts (Python, DataBricks, SQL) to identify anomalies, assess reliability, track performance trends, and perform regression analyses.
Design, oversee the execution, and review the results of software validation and flight test campaigns to ensure new features perform as intended and prevent hardware/software regression.
Daily test and monitor the develop branch to quickly surface instability and potential future issues.
Collaborate with cross-functional partners (GNC, Aerodynamics, Structures, Systems Engineering) to ensure system-level requirements (e.g., acceleration, range, climb rate) are clear, measurable, and that vehicle changes are mature for flight testing.
Define or develop novel test infrastructure, including application-based tools to support flight testing, new instrumentation systems (e.g., load cells, vision systems), or modified flight control software, to collect auxiliary data in flight.
Establish and maintain documentation, dashboards, and SQL search queries to track test progress and operational efficiency.
Be ready to directly own any aspect of flight operations (preflight, launch, flight maneuvers, incident reporting) or supervise these activities with the flight operations team.