Software Engineer Intern in San Mateo

About Skydio

Skydio is a leading US drone company and a world leader in autonomous flight. The team combines expertise in artificial intelligence, hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer focus to serve drone users ranging from utility inspectors and first responders to soldiers in battlefield scenarios.

About the Role

Skydio builds intelligent flying robots that pair innovative design with advanced technology. The company aims to make the world more productive, creative, and safe through autonomous flight, and its enterprise work is already having an impact across many industries.

What Makes Skydio Different

• Drones with best-in-class path planning and obstacle avoidance, built on over a decade of R&D in autonomy algorithms.
• In-house development of the full software stack, including embedded systems, middleware, autonomy, cloud infrastructure, manufacturing infrastructure, and automation.
• Hardware designed to integrate tightly with software for maximum performance per gram and per watt.
• A U.S. company that manufactures its drones at its factory in California.

As an intern on the Manufacturing Software team, you will be a core contributor. You will help manufacture high-quality drones, docks, and accessories at scale, turning prototypes into finished products. The processes and tools you build will affect the company's scale and success.

The team is highly cross-functional, working across backend (Python and Flask), embedded software (C++ and C), frontend (React and TypeScript), and electrical engineering (robotics and hardware fixtures).

If you have strong coding fundamentals, enjoy solving and debugging cross-functional problems, and are passionate about hardware-software systems, this internship offers strong learning and growth potential.

Our Tech Stack

• Python and Flask backend, on-machine code, and Protobufs for IPC and RPC
• React and TypeScript frontend
• On-premises containerized Linux client machines and servers, with an AWS backend cloud
• Hardware-in-the-Loop validation systems
• In-house framework for manufacturing and testing operations

Team Project Examples

• Build and maintain a Hardware-in-the-Loop system for continuous testing of drone hardware and software components.
• Design a deployment system that sends code to physical machines around the globe, including within challenging and hostile networks, with redundant safety systems.
• Build a visual configuration tool for documenting and changing mass production processes on the fly.
• Develop a robot calibration process that distinguishes hardware from software failures and suggests next steps for assembly rework.
• Create a dashboard that shows the state of the factory to help engineers debug faster.
• Develop an automated test fixture that assesses sensors and actuators with minimal operator interaction.

How You Will Make an Impact

• Develop an AI-powered triage system that inspects drone hardware and suggests which parts need repair. Build a framework that combines LLM agents with the manufacturing API in a loop to test hardware and compare results against a growing library of root cause failures and suggested reworks.

What Makes You a Good Fit

• You enjoy building great products and working on systems that involve both hardware and software.
• You are very comfortable with Python and have strong coding fundamentals.
• You are a patient troubleshooter, comfortable asking for help when needed and offering it whenever you can.
• You are excited by How It's Made or Factorio and want to get paid to work on the machine that builds the machines.

Skydio believes diversity drives innovation and is committed to an inclusive culture. Qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or other protected characteristics.

For positions in the United States, Skydio, Inc. uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility.