Guidance, Navigation, & Controls (GNC) Intern

Job Description

About the Company

Zipline is an innovative company on a mission to transform the way goods move globally. Their core aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building the first instant logistics system designed to serve all humans equally. They achieve this by leveraging their expertise in robotics and autonomy to design, build, and operate a fleet of cutting-edge, autonomous delivery drones. Zipline currently serves tens of millions of people around the world, providing equitable access to critical healthcare supplies.

Joining Zipline’s Emerging Talent program as an intern offers a unique opportunity to directly contribute to this mission. Zipline believes that internships are not just for observation or low-level tasks; instead, interns are expected to undertake meaningful work that actively propels Zipline’s mission forward, while simultaneously acquiring real-world skills valuable for their long-term careers.

Job Description (Detailed)

About The Guidance, Navigation, & Controls (GNC) Team
The Guidance, Navigation, & Controls (GNC) team is considered the heart of Zipline’s product success. This team is fundamentally responsible for developing, testing, and maintaining critical flight software systems that enable Zipline’s aircraft to complete missions autonomously. This includes every phase from takeoff, through predicting and executing successful deliveries, to safely and accurately landing. The GNC team develops novel solutions to ensure the responsiveness, robustness, and quality necessary for their delivery platforms to function reliably in a wide range of increasingly challenging conditions, thereby truly serving everyone globally.

About The Role (GNC Intern)
As an intern on the G GNC team, you will be immersed in understanding how Zipline flies autonomous aircraft in diverse and challenging flight conditions. Your work will involve utilizing data from flight testing, simulations, and Zipline’s global fleet of customer aircraft to uncover insights that can drive improvements in design. Through this, you will have the unique opportunity to implement changes to the systems that will measurably enhance the product. This role is not merely theoretical; your contributions will have the opportunity to directly impact and be seen flying.

What You’ll Do
• Contribute to the design, implementation, testing, and release of innovative flight algorithms aimed at improving the operational performance of vehicle controllers.
• Create robust tools and tests to demonstrate design performance and safeguard against software regressions, employing both theoretical guarantees and simulations.
• Conduct in-depth analysis of flight data to assess recent changes and upgrades, identifying regressions and potential areas for future enhancement.
• Design onboard integrity tests to communicate when the system performance is degraded.
• Present key results and changes to the broader engineering team, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing.

What You’ll Bring (Required Qualifications and Skills)
• Exceptional applied math skills.
• Enthusiasm for both simulations and working with hardware.
• Demonstrated experience having owned and developed controls solutions, whether through a team project, thesis, or competition.
• Exposure to one or more of the following areas:
• Precision integrated inertial navigation
• Dynamic modeling of complex systems
• Linear control analysis
• Optimal control with uncertainty
• Strong software engineering skills, with a preference for experience in both embedded software (C, C++) and technical computing environments (MATLAB, Python, Julia, etc.).
• Experience with Github and working within a multi-developer environment is advantageous.

What Else You Need to Know
• Internship Type: Full-time positions.
• Location: In-person at Zipline’s South San Francisco office.
• Duration: Fall 2025 interns will be hosted from September to December.
• Compensation: The starting cash range for this role is $38 – $42 per hour. This is a target range for candidates meeting minimum qualifications, and the final pay may vary based on experience, qualifications, skills, and working location. The total compensation package may also include overtime pay, commuter benefits, paid sick time, and more.
• Equal Opportunity Employer: Zipline is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and prohibits discrimination and harassment based on various protected characteristics.
• Diversity and Inclusion: Zipline values diversity and actively welcomes applications from individuals traditionally underrepresented in tech. Candidates are encouraged to apply even if they are unsure if they are a perfect fit.
• Accommodations: Zipline is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Applicants are encouraged to inform their point of contact at Zipline if they require any accommodations during the interview process.