New Zealand Aerospace Summer Internships Nov 2025 to Feb 2026

Spend your summer doing something extraordinary. We're offering a limited number of hands-on summer internship placements from mid-November 2025 to mid-February 2026, across our cutting-edge in-space propulsion and spaceplane programs in our Christchurch office.

What You'll Do

If selected, you’ll be entrusted with real engineering challenges—either taking a project from concept to completion or contributing to critical parts of larger missions. That means:

• Researching, designing, building, testing, and proving systems or subsystems that matter.


• Working closely with senior engineers and mentors.


• Using real tools, real test facilities, and deliver real outcomes. Many of our interns have designed and built things in orbit right now.

Past Intern Projects Include:

• Designing and testing reaction control engines


• Creating support and test infrastructure


• Simulating spaceplane and satellite flight trajectories


• Satellite propulsion system components


• ...and much more!

Who We're Looking For

You're currently studying (or recently completed):

• Aerospace, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Electrical or Software Engineering


• Computer Science, Data Science, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, or a Trade

Not on the list but think you're a great fit? Apply anyway—we care more about what you can do than what your CV says. Just make sure your application is in by no later than 15 June 2025

You have:

• At least two years of a degree completed or are progressing through a trade qualification


• Postgrad students are welcome too


• Hands-on experience with flying machines, fast vehicles, robotics, super yachts, rockets, or other complex systems


• The ability to get things done fast, with limited resources and a creative mindset


• Strong teamwork and communication skills

What Sets You Apart

We’re looking for builders, hackers, tinkerers, athletes and problem-solvers.

To stand out, show us:

• Real things you’ve built 


• What made your project creative, clever or bold


• Real odds you have overcome to achieve something extraordinary in sport, music, art, etc.


• How you achieved it—especially when the going was tough

Personal builds, weekend rockets, or competitive sports—we want to hear about it all. Be specific. Be proud. 

This is a serious application and will take you at least 2 hours to complete and submit - we need you to help us make an informed decision about this being the right internship for you.

About Dawn Aerospace

Our mission is to accelerate the next generation of space users with scalable and sustainable ways to deliver the things they care about from Earth to Space, and from Space to everywhere else. We’re building a spaceplane, a cutting-edge launch vehicle that combines the performance of a rocket with the rapid reusability and economic model of an aircraft. We’re also the fastest-growing supplier of green propulsion systems for satellites in the world. Our turnkey systems manoeuvre satellites in space and deorbit them at the end of their lifetimes.

Please also note that due to our current customer base and the nature of our industry and technology, we are required to conduct background checks that are undertaken for security reasons. These checks will include nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that the Employee be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by domestic and foreign regulations. Under these regulations, an employee may be ineligible for a role in our New Zealand office if they do not hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union or a country that is part of NATO, or if they hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality.