Infrastructure & Engineering Development Program Internship

Company: Optum

About the Role

This is a 10-week, in-office internship designed for students seeking a career in operating and automating enterprise technology. Interns will be embedded with a Global Technology Services (GTS) team, work on a visible project, and be paired with a formal mentor. The program focuses on a "build to operate" approach, utilizing AI tools and emphasizing reliability, security, cost, and end-user experience. The intent is to create a pipeline for future opportunities.

Focus areas include:

• AIOps and AI for IT Operations
• Automation, DevOps and Tooling
• Infrastructure and Cloud Operations
• Site Reliability Engineering, Observability and Resiliency
• Identity, Access and Employee Experience

Program Dates: June 1, 2027 - August 6, 2027.

Location: Eden Prairie / Minneapolis, MN.

Work Arrangement: In-office, five days a week.

Housing Assistance: May be available.

Sponsorship: Not available.

Pay: $18 - $32 per hour.

Key Responsibilities

• Be embedded in day-to-day operational work with a GTS team.
• Own a dedicated project and present it to mentors and leaders.
• Learn and apply AI fundamentals and AI productivity tools.
• Gain understanding of cloud and infrastructure basics, and security awareness.
• Participate in building and operating AI agents within the UHG framework.
• Work with deterministic and agentic automation, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code.
• Engage in cloud operations foundations, compute, storage and data center operations.
• Focus on observability, reliability and resiliency patterns.
• Work with network engineering, identity and access management (MFA, SSO).
• Apply AI-enabled tools and automation to support analysis, reporting, monitoring, or problem-solving in technology operations.
• Build effective prompts and use AI-enabled tools to explore data, summarize technical information, or generate insights.
• Integrate AI into workflows such as reporting, dashboards, and operations processes.
• Collaborate with teams to identify opportunities for technology and AI to improve processes or user experiences.
• Ensure responsible, compliant, and secure use of AI tools.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Currently pursuing a 2-year technical college degree, bachelor's, or master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Management Information Systems, or another technology-focused discipline.
• Foundational understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI tools to enhance productivity and problem-solving.
• Must be actively enrolled in an accredited college/university or 2-year technical college during the internship.
• Demonstrated problem-solving and analytical thinking.
• Strong collaboration and teamwork skills.
• Adaptability and learning agility.
• Curiosity.

Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

• Completion of at least two years of study, with the ability to return for a second aligned internship cycle.
• Coursework or project experience in networking, systems administration, cloud, or site reliability engineering.
• Working knowledge of at least one scripting or programming language used in technology operations (e.g., Python, PowerShell, Bash, Java, C#, JavaScript).
• Exposure to cloud technologies such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Exposure to containers and Kubernetes.
• Familiarity with source code control systems (e.g., Git, GitHub), CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code.
• Data literacy and analytics skills.
• Basic familiarity with responsible, compliant, and secure use of AI tools.
• Understanding of Agile frameworks, methodologies, roles, and tools (Kanban, Scrum, SAFe, LeSS, etc.).
• Involvement in additional technical activities (e.g., technology clubs, hackathons, home lab, side projects, GitHub) and/or technology-related employment experience.