Internship Government Software Engineering Jobs in Columbia, SC

At MITRE, your passion fuels work that impacts our nation and improves lives. This is where your skills strengthen national security, cybersecurity, health, transportation, and citizen services. We're a nonprofit engineering, applied research, and advanced technology organization working in the public interest. With objectivity and integrity at our core, we lead federally funded research and development centers for U.S. government agencies - collaborating with industry and academia to deliver integrated, high-impact solutions that advance our nation's health, security, and prosperity. Our people tackle the toughest technical challenges, supported by competitive benefits, meaningful career development, and a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence. Choose MITRE for a career with purpose - and help shape the future. Department Summary: The Warfighting Software Systems Integration & Experimentation department develops, integrates, and evaluates software-intensive systems that enable mission capabilities across joint, cyber, space, naval, and air warfighting environments. The department applies systems engineering, software integration, cybersecurity, digital engineering, modeling and simulation, and operational experimentation practices across the diverse Department of War (DoW) work programs to improve capability effectiveness, resiliency, and mission readiness. The successful candidate will work across the software and mission-engineering lifecycle-integrating applications, data, and cloud-enabled services; supporting system-of-systems analysis and experimentation; and applying modern DevSecOps and AI/ML tools-alongside a collaborative, multidisciplinary team. Roles & Responsibilities: * Develop, integrate, and assess software-intensive mission capabilities for advanced warfighting programs
* Apply systems engineering, software engineering, and cybersecurity to improve effectiveness, resiliency, and scalability.
* Apply AI/ML and AI-assisted software engineering approaches to mission problems, including joint force efforts such as JADC2, AI-supported planning and optimization, and assessments of AI-assisted software technologies for systems-of-record
* Support software health and resiliency efforts across mission-critical software ecosystems, including work related to software factories, continuous software threat and incident response, and improving the delivery of resilient software at the speed of need
* Collaborate with sponsors, mission partners, and multidisciplinary teams to deliver evidence-based technical products, engineering analyses, and actionable recommendations for joint, air, space, cyber, and naval mission environments Basic Qualifications: * Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline (e.g., Electrical Engineering, Data Science, or Applied Mathematics).
* 0-2 years of relevant experience in hands-on software development, including internships, co-ops, or full-time roles.
* Practical understanding of the software development lifecycle, with experience using modern programming languages such as Python, Java, or JavaScript/TypeScript.
* Experience developing full-stack or web applications using modern frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, Node.js, Spring Boot, or Flask).
* Foundational understanding of cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, or GCP) and familiarity with containerization (e.g., Docker).
* Experience working with databases (e.g., MySQL, MongoDB) and version control with Git.
* Strong analytical, communication, and teamwork skills, with demonstrated ability to learn new tools and technologies quickly.
* Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance. Per the U.S. Government's eligibility requirements, you must be a U.S Citizen to be c
* This position requires a minimum of 4 days a week on-site Preferred Qualifications: * Experience working with DoW C2 software systems
* Familiarity with large language models (LLMs) and AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, OpenAI, or Hugging Face).
* Experience evaluating, testing, or improving software through structured QA, automated test suites, or model-output evaluation.
* Exposure to graph databases (e.g., Neo4j) or building data-intensive and analytics applications.
* Experience with cloud-native development and AWS services, including building scalable, distributed systems.
* Internship, co-op, or project experience in a federal, research, or other mission-driven environment.
* Experience applying Agile or Scrum methodologies and collaborative software development practices.
* Active or current DoD or federal government security clearance. This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):
None This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):
Top Secret Salary compensation range and midpoint:
$79,200 - $99,000 - $118,800 Annual Work Location Type:
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