Zip Motion Planning Intern (Summer 2027)

About the Motion Planning Team

The Motion Planning team is central to Zipline’s autonomous delivery service. In the coming year, we will be hyper-scaling from thousands to tens of thousands of carefully coordinated drone deliveries in several dense, dynamic U.S. metros. Our team is responsible for the decision-making and trajectory generation that enables accurate and timely delivery in all sorts of environments. We push the envelope for performance, range, robustness, reliability, safety, and scale.

The Role

Our distinctive challenges require that we understand the ins and outs of our performance. We can’t achieve our ambitious goals for safety and scale without perfecting our designs and pushing what is possible. We need you to help us gather data, measure our system, analyze performance, drive the next generation of algorithmic designs, and prioritize the development that produces the highest impact. You’ll work directly with our team in a fast-paced and collaborative environment, and interact daily with flight testing ops and data from our fleet. Join us, and be at the frontier of shaping the future of autonomous deliveries.

What You'll Do

• Develop and evaluate motion planning algorithms for autonomous aircraft, exploring approaches such as search, sampling, and optimization.
• Build simulation and analysis tools to compare planner behavior and investigate challenging scenarios.
• Use simulation and flight data to identify long-tail issues, validate safety metrics, and guide improvements.
• Transition experimental solutions to scalable, real-world applications.
• Collaborate closely with team members, brainstorming and deriving creative solutions from first principles.
• Share findings and insights, fostering knowledge exchange across teams

What You'll Bring

• Working toward a BS, MS, or PhD in engineering, computer science, or robotics.
• Experience with C++ or Rust
• Familiarity with planning and search algorithms or trajectory optimization
• Familiarity solving problems involving real-world physics and dynamics
• Solid engineering intuition for keeping things simple and solving the right problems

What Else You Should Know

Our internships are full-time positions, in-person at our South San Francisco office. We will host our Summer 2027 interns from May/June to August/September

Candidates are limited to three (3) applications within a 30-day period.

The hourly rate for this internship is $54 per hour. Additional benefits may include relocation support, a housing stipend, overtime pay, paid sick time, and other benefits, where applicable and subject to local requirementshe 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.