Mechanical Engineer Intern (Summer 2027)

As a Mechanical Engineer Intern at Zipline, you will own a variety of big problems integral to our drone delivery system. You will take product and engineering requirements to develop concepts, use CAD tools to design parts and assemblies, build and test prototypes, and work cross-functionally with other teams and suppliers. You will design and run electro-mechanical testers to prove reliability, root cause failures, and document your work. This internship is full-time and in-person at our South San Francisco or Dallas office.

Responsibilities

• Mechanical interns can own a variety of big problems integral to our system! You can expect to:
• 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

Requirements

• You must have completed at least the second year of your Undergraduate studies. Masters and PhD students are also eligible.
• You’ll bring solid mechanical engineering fundamentals for structural analysis, sizing parts, and integrating components into a design with minimal help
• You’ll bring automation experience from working with actuators and Raspberry Pi’s (or similar)
• You’re well versed in CAD, and have designed multiple projects with it
• You’ve worked on complex projects that require mechanical, electrical, and software design
• You're quick to change direction when you realize you’ve made a mistake OR could achieve the same goal in a simpler way
• You bias to action and communicate consistently with your team to ensure everyone is focused on meeting the project goals on time
• You're excited to build on your design skills with brainstorms, design reviews, and failure mode analysis
• You can anticipate, plan and schedule your own work
• You bring 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