Mechanical Engineer Intern (Fall 2026)

Zipline • South San Francisco, CA

3d • Onsite

About The Position

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service, aiming to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine, and essential goods. They design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, making deliveries globally and completing millions of critical supply deliveries. Zipline's system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and saves people time. The company operates at a global scale and seeks practical problem solvers motivated by building systems with a direct, meaningful impact and scaling the future of logistics. They are looking for individuals who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can achieve the impossible at high speeds.

This role involves aggressively tackling cross-disciplinary projects from conceptual stages through to field deployment. The ideal candidate will use hands-on skills to build prototypes and run tests to eliminate circular discussions. Work is intended for the field, emphasizing the need for clear communication and realistic expectations. Dedicated engineers are needed to reduce risk and improve system reliability, as others' lives depend on it. The team operates in a fast-paced environment focused on important goals, eliminating blockers, and executing with extreme practicality.

Mechanical Engineers at Zipline take ownership of their areas, become domain experts, define system requirements, develop creative and simple solutions, and prove with testing that their systems meet real-world demands. Teams are responsible for everything from initial system designs to creating test and validation strategies and root-causing issues with existing systems.

Requirements

• Robust experience designing and actually building multiple mechanical systems outside of the classroom
• Completed at least the second year of Undergraduate studies. Masters and PhD students are also eligible.
• Solid mechanical engineering fundamentals for structural analysis, sizing parts, and integrating components into a design with minimal help
• Automation experience from working with actuators and Raspberry Pi’s (or similar)
• Well versed in CAD, and have designed multiple projects with it
• Worked on complex projects that require mechanical, electrical, and software design
• Quick to change direction when you realize you’ve made a mistake OR could achieve the same goal in a simpler way
• Bias to action and communicate consistently with your team to ensure everyone is focused on meeting the project goals on time
• Excited to build on your design skills with brainstorms, design reviews, and failure mode analysis
• Can anticipate, plan and schedule your own work
• A “can do” attitude, because we have a lot of vital work to get done and only work with people who are invested in solving critical problems

Responsibilities

• Take product and engineering requirements to develop concepts and evaluate tradeoffs for each
• Use 2D and 3D CAD tools to design parts and assemblies based on sound engineering principles
• Use resources creatively to design, build, and test prototypes to gather quick learnings
• Work cross-functionally with other Zipline teams and suppliers to review designs
• Design, build, and run electro-mechanical testers that you develop to prove reliability of critical components
• Evaluate designs and components on a material, element, and fully integrated product level
• Root cause failures and develop a test to replicate the failure mode
• Document your work so that others can easily understand key decisions made

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: Associate degree