Fall/Winter Engineering Co-op

Haast Autonomous is building an autonomous aircraft network for time-sensitive medical logistics. We’re developing long-range VTOL aircraft, autonomy software, and the operational foundation needed to move critical payloads between hospitals, labs, and healthcare facilities on-demand faster and more reliably.

We’re early, small, and moving quickly. Joining now means you'll have a direct role in shaping the foundation of Haast - our culture, engineering process, testing discipline, partner relationships, and the path from prototype to a real medical logistics network.

We’re looking for high-agency people who want ownership, urgency, and system-level impact from day one.

About the Role

Haast is looking for Fall/Winter Engineering Co-ops to join our aircraft development team for an extended full-time work term.

This role is designed for students seeking deeper ownership than a traditional internship, with the opportunity to spend a full semester or longer contributing to real aircraft development. You will work closely with the founding engineering team across aircraft design, prototyping, avionics, controls, simulation, manufacturing, and flight testing.

You won't just shadow other engineers-you'll make real contributions to hardware, participate in test campaigns, and be involved in genuine engineering decisions.

What You’ll Do

• Support the design, build, and testing of autonomous aircraft prototypes.

• Work on a focused engineering project based on your background and company needs.

• Assist with airframe design, mechanical design, prototyping, avionics, controls, simulation, manufacturing, or flight-test support.

• Build, assemble, modify, and repair aircraft hardware.

• Create CAD models, test fixtures, documentation, analysis, or simulation tools.

• Assist with flight-test preparation, data review, repairs, and design iteration.

• Analyze test results and help integrate lessons learned into aircraft improvements.

• Document your work to continuously improve future builds and tests.

You May Be a Fit If You Are

• Pursuing a degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, robotics, computer engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.

• Able to work full-time during the Fall/Winter co-op term.

• Interested in aircraft, drones, autonomy, hardware, manufacturing, or medical logistics.

• Hands-on and comfortable working in a shop, hangar, or field-test environment.

• Comfortable learning quickly and working through ambiguity.

• Practical, self-directed, and willing to take ownership.

• Excited to work in an early-stage startup where priorities change rapidly and the work is impactful.

Nice to Have

• Experience with CAD, 3D printing, drones, aircraft, robotics, controls, simulation, electronics, or manufacturing.

• Involvement in student projects like rocketry, Formula SAE, robotics, UAV teams, design teams, research labs, or personal hardware projects.

• Familiarity with SolidWorks, Python, MATLAB, ArduPilot, PX4, electronics, composites, wiring, or flight testing.

• Experience building something that needed to work in the real world.

Why This Role Matters

A co-op term gives you enough time to see multiple design-build-test cycles. You won’t just complete one isolated project-you’ll help drive the aircraft’s progress over a meaningful part of the development timeline.

At Haast, co-ops are a core part of the engineering team. You’ll work close to the aircraft, close to the test data, and side by side with the people making decisions.

We care more about agency, ownership, taste, and evidence that you can build than whether you match every bullet point. If you have worked on aircraft, drones, robots, vehicles, rockets, or other hard technical systems and want to help build something from the ground up, we want to hear from you.