Applications Engineer Intern (Fall 2026)

About Zipline Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world’s largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. Our customers include the world’s largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we’ve built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations. Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe. We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds. About the Ground Systems Deployment Team The Ground Systems Deployment and Construction team is responsible for turning bare ground into functional drone charging sites! We’re a broad, cross-functional team with skills across civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, and construction engineering with a mandate to deliver world-class construction execution with zero issues in the first 30 days, on-time and on-budget, using scalable, cost-optimized, and serviceable designs. The Role Do you want to directly influence a wide range of engineering challenges arising from real-world, fast-paced operations? As an Applications Engineer Intern , you are the technical specialist responsible for solving application-specific challenges related to the deployment of our infrastructure in diverse environments. You take a rigorous systems-based approach to problem-solving. Your primary mission is to identify, validate, and integrate off-the-shelf (OTS) systems and commercially available products that meet our rigorous ground infrastructure requirements. Whether you are architecting a remote monitoring camera network, integrating weather sensing arrays, or designing specialized lifting and service apparatus, you ensure that Zipline’s hardware functions flawlessly in every unique application. What You'll Do Contribute to the development, testing, and deployment of system improvements for the Platform 2 system supporting ground systems, commercial operations, and new deployments. Develop and implement technical solutions for specialized application needs, including lifting apparatus for maintenance or weather stations for localized flight safety. Evaluate, select, and manage relationships with external vendors to source high-availability, low-cost commercially available products that fulfill critical system requirements. Work with the engineering and deployments organization to refine site requirements and transform them into deployable systems that fulfill first-principles needs. Define the necessary handover materials and processes to move new application solutions into a sustaining operations trajectory. What You'll Bring Pursuing a degree in Electrical/Mechanical Engineering or a related field. You must have completed the second year of your undergraduate studies. Masters and PhD students are also eligible. Proficiency in troubleshooting hardware and software systems, data collection