Students & Recent Graduates Employment Opportunities

There are many paths for students and recent graduates to pursue an opportunity with CISA to help protect the homeland from cyber and physical threats. CISA’s internships provide hands-on opportunities to challenge and build technical skills. Join a team of public servants who use their professional and risk advisory acumen every day to adapt and develop innovative ways to protect the nation’s physical and cyber infrastructures. 

CURRENT OPEN INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

When we have open internship opportunities listings (such as Pathways Internships and Pathways Recent Graduates positions on USAJOBS), we will add links to them here.

Scholarship for Service Internship

If you are a student participating in the Scholarship for Service (SFS) program, we are looking for summer interns! Apply on USAJOBS today (open until 1/17/25). Please note that you must include proof that you are in SFS as part of your application, and we will also verify this with OPM. If you are not an SFS student, you cannot be considered for these internships.

Intelligence and Cybersecurity Diversity Fellowship (ICDF) Opportunity

The ICDF is a DHS internship program geared towards recruiting students for intelligence and cybersecurity career paths. The ICDF is for Freshman/Sophomore/Junior students enrolled full-time at Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) or Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) who are majoring in a cybersecurity, IT, STEM, or intelligence-related field. Students must also be in good standing and have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale. During the 12-week paid summer internship program, participants will be immersed in a federal work environment by collaborating with subject matter expert mentors on projects and performing assigned tasks in intelligence or cybersecurity. ICDF participants also have the potential to be converted to federal employees after graduation provided they meet certain conditions. We will have listings for both the IT/cyber internships and an intelligence internship. We have summarized them both below and urge you to apply on USAJOBS if you are eligible and interested.

ICDF – Student Trainee (Information Technology) – GS-2299-3/4 – Arlington, VA – OPEN 11/13/24-11/27/24 (NEW!)

In this role, you will assist with public-facing cyber outreach and engagement; supporting the overall work of the office; assist with the generation of program source codes using various computer languages; assist with network monitoring and incident response; update hardware and software systems; research cybersecurity tools and techniques; assisting with the analysis of cybersecurity programs and researching new solutions for emerging cyber security threats, and assisting with the analyzing and evaluating security log data.

OCC Volunteer Legal Internship

Summer 2025 and Fall 2025 OCC Volunteer Legal Internship

The CISA Office of the Chief Counsel (OCC) is excited to offer unpaid internship opportunities for law students with an interest in cybersecurity and/or infrastructure security! These OCC internships are for U.S. citizens who are currently enrolled in law school and have completed at least 1 semester of their first year. Volunteer interns will support OCC attorneys in providing legal and policy advice to CISA staff through one or more of the following OCC Legal Divisions: Cybersecurity, General Law, Ethics, Infrastructure Security and Regulatory Programs, Litigation and Investigations, and/or Operations, Engagement, and Risk. Interns will assist CISA attorneys by providing written advice on the application of federal laws to CISA and DHS programs and policies. Other assignments may include legal research and analysis, client engagement and consultations as necessary.

• Applications for Summer 2025 will be accepted until December 13, 2024. 
• Applications for Fall 2025 will be accepted from December 14, 2024 through February 28, 2025. 

HS-POWER

CISA also participates in Homeland Security Professional Opportunities for Student Workforce to Experience Research (HS-POWER), a DHS internship program for undergraduate and graduate students. This program offers a stipend and allows students to participate in quality homeland security-related research experiences with research facilities and DHS components nationwide, either onsite or virtually. If you are onsite, travel to the work station and a housing stipend are also included. Students are paired with mentors as a part of the program. Applications are accepted from September-December and are open now. For more information and to apply, please visit the HS-POWER website.