Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineering Intern, Summer 2027

Wing•Palo Alto, CA

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

Wing is seeking a Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Software Engineering Intern to join its team in Palo Alto, California. The GN&C team designs and implements algorithms for motion planning, state estimation, flight control, actuation, and contingency management. The role is suited to motivated engineers interested in autonomous aerial robots who can demonstrate experience writing and deploying software for motion planning, state estimation, or low-level control on physical systems. Relevant techniques may include Model Predictive Control, trajectory optimization, SLAM, Kalman filtering, geometric control, computer vision, Vision-Language-Action models, and related methods. Candidates should understand classical and state-of-the-art approaches to robot control and autonomy, particularly for safety-critical applications. The role is part of Wing’s 12-week paid summer internship program. It is a hybrid, in-person program based in Palo Alto, with start dates in May or June. Eligible candidates must be currently enrolled in a degree program and intend to return to it after the internship. Candidates must be pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in robotics, aerospace engineering, computer science, or a related field, with graduation expected between December 2027 and August 2028. Wing offers drone delivery as a fast and sustainable last-mile logistics solution. It designs, builds, and operates highly automated delivery aircraft and services on two continents. Wing is part of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and aims to create the preferred means of delivery for the planet.

Requirements

Currently pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in robotics, aerospace engineering, computer science, or a related field, with expected graduation between December 2027 and August 2028.
Strong examples of hands-on engineering experience through student project teams, research labs, internships, or other work experience.
Coursework in linear algebra, optimization, machine learning, or statistics.
Theoretical foundations in data structures and algorithms.
Proficiency in C++ or Python.
Must be currently enrolled in a degree program and intend to return to it after the summer internship.

Responsibilities

Prototype new robot behaviors to solve business problems.
Develop and implement motion planning, state estimation, or control algorithms for Wing aircraft.
Deploy and validate software in simulated and real environments.
Analyze flight data to evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches at scale.
Work with engineers in perception and computer vision, machine learning, simulation, aerodynamics and propulsion, and embedded software.
Learn how to build and maintain an autonomous system that has supported over 1 million customer deliveries.