Full-Stack Development Intern

About the Role

The SEI is dedicated to advancing software engineering principles and practices, serving as a national resource for software engineering, computer security, and process improvement. We collaborate with defense and government organizations, industry, and academia to enhance software-intensive systems. Our mission is to help organizations improve their software engineering capabilities and acquire the right software, defect-free, on time, and within budget.

This internship is within the Cyber Mission Readiness Directorate at CERT. You will collaborate with a team of software engineers, learning engineers, and cybersecurity experts focused on building the software for cyber training, exercises, and assessments. You will assist in developing features and fixes for open-source web applications used for cyber exercises, virtual labs, and online courses. Your work will involve writing automated tests, identifying and fixing defects, and integrating learner activity tracking (xAPI) and AI-assisted features into existing applications.

This internship begins in Fall 2026, with the option to continue through Spring 2027.

This is a part-time, fully onsite position based in Pittsburgh, PA.

Key Responsibilities

• Full-stack web application development (C#/.NET and Angular)
• Learning management system plugin development (PHP and Moodle)
• Automated unit, integration, and end-to-end testing
• xAPI instrumentation and AI feature integration
• Implementing features and fixes in web application front ends and APIs: 40%
• Writing automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests: 25%
• Instrumenting applications for xAPI and integrating AI-assisted features: 20%
• Writing documentation and demonstrating work to the team: 15%

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Enrolled in a degree-granting program.
• Willingness to travel to various locations to support the SEI’s overall mission, including within the SEI and CMU community.
• Must be eligible to work in the United States without Visa sponsorship.
• Background check required.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to critically think and problem-solve.
• Familiarity with an object-oriented programming language, such as C#, Java, or TypeScript.
• Familiarity with web development fundamentals, such as HTTP, REST APIs, HTML, and CSS.
• Familiarity with Git and collaborative workflows, such as branching and merge requests.
• 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 ASP.NET Core or Angular.
• Experience with PHP or a learning management system, such as Moodle.
• Experience writing automated tests, such as with Playwright, xUnit, or Jest.
• Experience with relational databases, such as PostgreSQL.

These experiences may also come from education-driven experiences or extracurriculars.