Real Estate Intern (Summer 2027)

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.

The Real Estate & Development team identifies, secures, and entitles the sites that power Zipline’s network. We source markets, lead site selection and due diligence (zoning, utilities, environmental), negotiate LOIs/leases and land agreements, and drive entitlements and permitting with municipalities and partner real estate teams. We align stakeholders, manage budgets and schedules, and deliver permitted, ready-to-build locations—spanning test sites and regional hubs—before handing off to construction. By turning candidate properties into drone delivery sites at speed, we enable Zipline to scale into new regions and deliver life-changing logistics where they’re needed most.

As a Real Estate & Development Intern based in our San Francisco office, you will help expand the physical infrastructure that makes Zipline’s delivery system possible. You will support projects from early site identification through approvals and development, helping turn promising locations into operational sites that serve customers and communities. Along the way, you will tackle complex, real-world challenges at the intersection of aviation, real estate, technology, and the built environment. You will work alongside and learn from experienced partners across Real Estate, Engineering, Operations, Government Affairs, and Communications. Your work will contribute directly to Zipline’s mission by helping bring fast, reliable delivery to more people in more places.

• Support market screening and site selection by evaluating zoning, land-use requirements, setbacks, utilities, easements, environmental conditions, and airspace considerations.

• Assess potential sites for feasibility and risk, identifying permitting hurdles, title issues, infrastructure constraints, and other factors that could affect development.

• Partner with Engineering and Operations to translate technical requirements into practical site criteria, scopes of work, site plans, and permit-ready materials.

• Learn how projects move through local approval processes by working with city planners, zoning officials, building departments,