Cyber Range Development Intern

About the role

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 Fall 2026, with the option to continue through the Spring 2027 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., Proxmox VE, 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 Proxmox VE, 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.
• Carnegie Mellon University is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran.

• Location
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Job Function
• Non-CMU Students
• Position Type
• Intern (Fixed Term)
• Full time/Part time
• Part time
• Pay Basis
• Hourly

More Information

• 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