Software Engineering & AI Intern

Leidos, a leading defense, intelligence, and technology company, is seeking motivated and aspiring software engineering students for our Summer 2027 Internship Program (Starts May 2027).

As a Software Engineering & AI Intern, you will join our Digital Sector on the Global Solutions Management – Operations II (GSM-O II) contract. This contract includes the Operations, Sustainment, Maintenance, Repair, and Defense of the Defense Information System Network (DISN) in support of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

Your Opportunity:

We are looking for highly motivated, driven, and capable candidates to join our GSM-O Global Automation and Intelligent Network Solutions (GAINS) Team! This summer, you will do more than observe,you will help build intelligent systems that operate at mission-critical scale. You will work with high-volume data, engineer real-time pipelines using technologies such as Kafka and Elastic, and apply predictive machine learning and generative AI to detect emerging problems and advance toward closed-loop, self-healing networks.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, document, test, and deploy software written in Python, JavaScript, Java, and SQL.
• Create Kibana visualizations and dashboards to provide information to users and support staff.
• Develop Kafka system integrations between Elasticsearch/Logstash and other systems, such as Databricks.
• Develop and apply AI/ML and automation capabilities.
• Assist with the deployment, configuration, testing, troubleshooting, maintenance, updates/upgrades of Kafka and Elastic clusters and environments.
• Develop automated tests using Ansible, Selenium, JMeter, Junit and/or other applicable tools.
• Develop automated CI/CD build/deployment pipelines using Jenkins, Artifactory, Kubernetes, Docker, Ansible, and Bitbucket.
• Work with an Agile team, attend daily scrums, and demonstrate working software while collaborating with a geographically distributed (remote) team.
• Troubleshoot and resolve installation, infrastructure, and system issues.
• Proactively and independently identify, report, monitor, and mitigate technical risks.
• Frequently communicate and collaborate with other team members to ensure successful completion of project objectives.

Requirements

• Citizenship & Clearance: Must be a U.S. citizen. Ability to obtain an interim Secret DoD Security clearance prior to your start date is required (selected candidates will be sponsored for the required clearance).
• Education: Currently pursuing a degree in a relevant discipline such as Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Data Science.
• Technical Foundation: Software development experience with Python, Java, and SQL, and a working knowledge of HTML and JavaScript.
• Version Control: Experience with distributed version control software such as Git and Bitbucket.
• Platform Knowledge: Experience developing software on a UNIX command line platform.
• Teamwork: Strong communication skills that enable proactive and effective collaboration with a virtual team.
• Location: This position is primarily remote, but regular, on-site support at Scott AFB, IL or Ft. Meade, MD is mandatory for periodic project milestones.

Desired Skills

• Certifications: Obtaining a CompTIA Security+ certification (or equivalent DoD 8570 IAT II certification) before the start date is strongly encouraged.
• Hands-On Experience: Full software lifecycle experience (design, development, test, deployment), especially in a containerized environment (Kubernetes/Docker).
• Familiarity with: Web development using UI frameworks like React, designing and building DevOps pipelines with tools like Bitbucket, Jenkins, and Ansible, developing software in a cloud environment (AWS is a plus), Atlassian tools, including JIRA and Confluence, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and concepts (large language models, predictive analytics) to support the development of self-healing and auto-ticketing capabilities.