Cyber Range Development Intern

Carnegie Mellon University; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 25,000 - 44,000; Part time

Job summary

Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in Pittsburgh is offering a part-time, on-site internship starting Fall 2026, with potential continuation into Spring 2027. You will join CERT's Cyber Mission Readiness Directorate to craft hands-on training environments and build VM templates using ProxmoxVE, VMware, Terraform, and Ansible, among other tasks.

You will collaborate with software engineers, learning engineers, and cybersecurity experts to develop realistic exercise

Qualifications

• Enrolled in a degree-granting program.
• Willingness to travel to various locations including the CMU community.
• Eligible to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain lab templates and topologies.
• Migrate lab content to new virtualization infrastructure.
• Develop and test cybersecurity exercise scenarios with SMEs.
• Document lab environments and demonstrate them to the team.

Skills

Linux/Windows admin

Networking basics

Scripting (Bash/PowerShell/Python)

Collaborate with teams

Documentation

Education

Enrolled in a degree-granting program

Tools

ProxmoxVE

VMware

Terraform

Ansible/cloud-init

Job description

What We Do

The SEI helps advance software engineering principles and practices and serves as a national resource in software engineering, computer security, and process improvement. The SEI works closely with defense and government organizations, industry, and academia to continually improve software-intensive systems. Our core purpose is to help organizations improve software engineering capabilities and develop or acquire the right software, defect free, within budget and on time, every time.

Position Summary

You will work as a part of the Cyber Mission Readiness Directorate within CERT and will collaborate with a team of software engineers, learning engineers, and cybersecurity experts focused on developing hands‑on training, exercises, and assessments that improve cyber mission readiness. You will assist members of the Operational Readiness and Evaluation team in building the virtual lab environments that hands‑on cybersecurity training and exercises run on. You will build and version virtual machine templates and network topologies, and help move existing lab content onto an open‑source virtualization platform. You will help develop realistic exercise scenarios with cybersecurity subject matter experts, and test them before they are used in live training. This internship begins in Fall2026, with the option to continue through the Spring2027 semester. You will contribute to a variety of core functions including:

• Virtual machine image, template, and configuration automation (e.g., Packer, cloud‑init, Ansible)
• Virtualization and software‑defined networking (e.g., ProxmoxVE, VMware)
• Infrastructure as code for lab environments (e.g., Terraform)
• Cyber exercise scenario development and testing

Requirements

• Enrolled in a degree granting program.
• Willingness to travel to various locations to support the SEI’s overall mission. This includes within the SEI and CMU community.
• You will be subject to a background check and must be eligible to work in the United States without Visa sponsorship.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Ability to critically think and problem solve
• Familiarity with Linux and Windows system administration
• Basic knowledge of networking concepts, such as IP addressing, routing, VLANs, and DNS
• Familiarity with a scripting language, such as Bash, PowerShell, or Python
• Ability to collaborate internally and externally with professional engineers, instructional designers, and subject matter experts
• Willingness to learn new technologies with cross‑functional teams
• Must be organized, detail‑oriented, and have the capacity to clearly document and communicate any findings

Desired Experience

• Experience with a hypervisor, such as ProxmoxVE, VMware vSphere, KVM, or Hyper‑V
• Experience with Packer or Terraform
• Experience configuring virtual machines with Ansible or cloud‑init
• Experience with offensive or defensive security tools, such as Kali Linux or Security Onion
• Cybersecurity coursework or hands‑on experience (e.g., capture‑the‑flag competitions or home labs)
• These experiences may also come from education‑driven experiences or extracurriculars.

Job Function Breakdown

• Build and maintain virtual machine templates and lab topologies: 35%
• Migrate and validate existing lab content on new virtualization infrastructure: 25%
• Develop and test exercise scenarios with subject matter experts: 25%
• Document lab environments and demonstrate them to the team: 15%

TOTAL = 100%

This is a part‑time, fully onsite position based in our Pittsburgh office.

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Job Function: Non‑CMU Students

Position Type: Intern (Fixed Term)

Full time/Part time: Part time

Pay Basis: Hourly

Carnegie Mellon University is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran.

Carnegie Mellon University is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran.

Please visit “Why Carnegie Mellon” to learn more about becoming part of an institution inspiring innovations that change the world. Click here to view a listing of employee benefits

Statement of Assurance: Always focused on the future, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) advances software as a strategic advantage for national security. We lead research and direct transition of software engineering, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence technologies at the intersection of academia, industry, and government. We serve the nation as a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and are based at Carnegie Mellon University, a global research university annually rated among the best for its programs in computer science and engineering.

We perform research and apply our expertise every day to foresee problems and exploit opportunities in software engineering, AI engineering, and cybersecurity. Quality software that is secure will control the future. At CMU SEI, we are engineering that ever‑greater software‑fueled future.

Need Help? For technical assistance, email [e-mail] or call 412‑268‑5072. We are committed to providing an accessible experience throughout our recruitment process. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation at any stage of the application, interview, or hiring process, please contact Equal Opportunity Services by email at [e-mail] or by phone at 412‑268‑3930.