Software Systems Validation Intern (Fall 2026)

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

2d•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 millions of deliveries globally. Zipline's system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and offers rapid delivery. The company is seeking practical problem solvers motivated by building impactful systems and scaling the future of logistics. The Software Systems Validation team ensures the reliability and safety of the software powering Zipline's autonomous delivery aircraft, focusing on how components like navigation, perception, and controls work together. The team collaborates with various engineering groups to develop validation tools, analyze performance, and identify risks through simulation, hardware testing, and data analysis. As an intern, you will gain hands-on experience with industry-leading autonomous systems, collaborating with engineers across different domains. The role involves evaluating the software that enables Zipline's autonomous drone delivery system, contributing to tests, tools, metrics, and visualizations to ensure system performance, identify issues, and guarantee reliability before flight. This position is ideal for someone eager to learn about validating complex robotic systems, enjoys problem-solving, and wants to gain practical experience in autonomy software, data analysis, and systems engineering.

Requirements

Must have completed the second year of undergraduate studies in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related field. Masters and PhD students are also eligible.
Coursework or project experience in robotics, controls, estimation, navigation, perception, or software development
Familiarity with testing, debugging, or validation methodologies (academic or project-based experience counts!)
Experience with data analysis using Python, SQL, or similar
Basic proficiency with a compiled language such as C/C++ or Rust
Curiosity, attention to detail, and a desire to learn how autonomous systems are validated in real-world environments

Nice To Haves

Exposure to hardware, actuators, sensors, and interfacing with software
Experience with robotics competitions, club projects, or research labs
Interest in requirements development, reliability engineering, or statistical validation

Responsibilities

Support the design and execution of test scenarios across the autonomous software stack to validate system-level requirements
Help develop and improve validation tools, workflows, and automation
Build basic visualizations or metrics that highlight performance trends, gaps, or regressions
Work with test infrastructure and data platform teams to run validation pipelines
Analyze results and contribute to identifying root causes of failures or unexpected behavior
Document findings and communicate insights to engineering stakeholders.