Manufacturing Software Engineer Intern

Other Jobs To Apply

No other job posts for this day.

Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial transportation. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, and operational excellence to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users - from first responders to insurance claims adjusters, utilities, and more!

About the role:

At Skydio, our mission is to make the world more productive, creative, and safe with autonomous flight. We have a deep belief in the transformative power of drones, and our products are used in critical industries across the world.

Customers choose Skydio because:

  • We’ve invested in AI and autonomy since the inception of the company ten years ago. Our drones fly more intelligently than anything else in the market, turning any user into an expert pilot.
  • Our products are simple-to-use and reliable due to vertical integration. We build all parts of the software stack in-house, including embedded systems, middleware, autonomy, cloud services, and manufacturing infrastructure.
  • We are a U.S. company and assemble our drones at our factory in California.

In working with this software infrastructure team, you’ll be at the center of Skydio’s efforts to scale manufacturing, where our drones and the factories that build them are complex, collaborative systems. Our software guides production and tracks the history of every part, enabling efficient testing, validation, and quality assurance for every product we ship. To meet global customer demand, we need to level-up our software architecture to handle more product lines, more factories, bigger teams of contributors, and integration with external partners, all while keeping quality extremely high.

The core team consists of high performing software engineers working in a cross-functional environment. Projects sit at the intersection of backend services, embedded software, frontend UI, and electrical engineering.

You don’t need hardware experience — but being passionate about hardware-software systems would really make you a great fit for the role.

 Our tech:

  • Python + Flask services
  • Protobufs for IPC and RPC
  • React + Typescript frontend
  • On-premises containerized Linux client machines and servers deployed to the factory with Ansible.
  • Terraform + AWS backend cloud
  • Hardware-In-the-Loop build validation systems
  • Internally developed framework for manufacturing and testing operations

Team Project Examples:

  • Build and maintain a Hardware-In-the-Loop system for continuous testing of the hardware and software components of our drones and build systems.
  • Design a deployment system for sending code to physical machines all over the globe, inside of challenging and insecure networks, with redundant safety systems, fast rollbacks, and A/B validation schemes.
  • Build a visual configuration tool for documenting and changing how mass production processes work and change on the fly.
  • Optimize our robot calibration process that can distinguish between hardware and software failures and suggest next steps for assembly rework.
  • Create a dashboard that visualizes the state of the factory to help engineers debug faster.
  • Develop an automated fixture that assesses drone sensors and actuators to minimize operator interaction.

How you'll make an impact:

  • Work with passionate, impact oriented software engineers on projects that range from front to back end to infrastructure, enabling us to reliably scale across multiple factories and contract manufacturer sites.
  • Help design secure, efficient, observable, and robust software for dealing with real-time and historical data generated by the factory, empowering other teams to investigate yield issues and make decisions.
  • Keep the factory running smoothly by establishing processes, best-practices, APIs and tooling that help test authors write predictable and maintainable code against our framework.
  • Work in a very cross functional environment with multiple stakeholders and dependencies.
  • Look at a process and ask, 'How can this be eliminated or made faster, more reliable, scalable, and less human-dependent?' - and then make that happen.

What makes you a good fit:

  • You have strong software fundamentals and are proficient in an object oriented coding language like Pytho, C++ or Java.
  • You have excellent communication skills, speak up when blocked and ask questions when things are not clear to help you land the right solution for the problem at hand.
  • You are excited about working on an infrastructure system that can scale to multiple geographic locations and large volume production.
  • Working with software and hardware systems (think robotics) is something you are passionate about
  • You love building great products and are eager to design software systems that automate and coordinate human-robot interactions at scale.
  • You get pumped watching How It's Made or playing Factorio and want to get paid to work on the machine that builds the machines.

Compensation Range: The annual base salary range for this position is $41/hr for Undergrad, $53/hr for Graduate students, and $58 for PhD students*. Compensation will vary based on factors, including skill level, proficiencies, transferable knowledge, and experience. In addition to base salary, Skydio full-time employees are eligible to enroll in our benefit plans and take advantage of a variety of incentives and stipends.

*For some positions the pay may be dependent upon the individual's regional location.

#LI-AY1

At Skydio we believe that diversity drives innovation. We have created a multidisciplinary environment that embraces the power of diverse perspectives to create elegant solutions for complex problems. We are committed to growing our network of people, programs, and resources to nurture an inclusive culture.

As such, we do not make hiring or other employment-related decisions on the basis of an applicant or employee’s race, color, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, sex/gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions),  gender identity or expression, age, religion, disability status, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, genetic information or characteristics, veteran, military or family status, or other classifications protected by applicable federal, state or local anti-discrimination laws.

For positions located in the United States of America, Skydio, Inc. uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit 

Back to blog

Common Interview Questions And Answers

1. HOW DO YOU PLAN YOUR DAY?

This is what this question poses: When do you focus and start working seriously? What are the hours you work optimally? Are you a night owl? A morning bird? Remote teams can be made up of people working on different shifts and around the world, so you won't necessarily be stuck in the 9-5 schedule if it's not for you...

2. HOW DO YOU USE THE DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION TOOLS IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS?

When you're working on a remote team, there's no way to chat in the hallway between meetings or catch up on the latest project during an office carpool. Therefore, virtual communication will be absolutely essential to get your work done...

3. WHAT IS "WORKING REMOTE" REALLY FOR YOU?

Many people want to work remotely because of the flexibility it allows. You can work anywhere and at any time of the day...

4. WHAT DO YOU NEED IN YOUR PHYSICAL WORKSPACE TO SUCCEED IN YOUR WORK?

With this question, companies are looking to see what equipment they may need to provide you with and to verify how aware you are of what remote working could mean for you physically and logistically...

5. HOW DO YOU PROCESS INFORMATION?

Several years ago, I was working in a team to plan a big event. My supervisor made us all work as a team before the big day. One of our activities has been to find out how each of us processes information...

6. HOW DO YOU MANAGE THE CALENDAR AND THE PROGRAM? WHICH APPLICATIONS / SYSTEM DO YOU USE?

Or you may receive even more specific questions, such as: What's on your calendar? Do you plan blocks of time to do certain types of work? Do you have an open calendar that everyone can see?...

7. HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE FILES, LINKS, AND TABS ON YOUR COMPUTER?

Just like your schedule, how you track files and other information is very important. After all, everything is digital!...

8. HOW TO PRIORITIZE WORK?

The day I watched Marie Forleo's film separating the important from the urgent, my life changed. Not all remote jobs start fast, but most of them are...

9. HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A MEETING AND PREPARE A MEETING? WHAT DO YOU SEE HAPPENING DURING THE MEETING?

Just as communication is essential when working remotely, so is organization. Because you won't have those opportunities in the elevator or a casual conversation in the lunchroom, you should take advantage of the little time you have in a video or phone conference...

10. HOW DO YOU USE TECHNOLOGY ON A DAILY BASIS, IN YOUR WORK AND FOR YOUR PLEASURE?

This is a great question because it shows your comfort level with technology, which is very important for a remote worker because you will be working with technology over time...