Cybersecurity Internship Spring 2027

Low Earth orbit is open for business. Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.Vardas W-Series vehicles are built designed and operated by Varda in-house including the pharmaceutical processing payloads the capsules the C-PICA heat shields and the satellite buses.

From life-saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating both the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.

Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX Blue Origin major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world class investors including Khosla Ventures Lux Capital Founders Fund Caffeinated Capital General Catalyst and Also Capital.

Varda is headquartered in El Segundo California where we have offices and a production facility where our vehicles equipment and materials are built integrated and tested. Varda also has offices in Washington DC and Huntsville AL.

Join Varda and work to create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

Spring internships will range between the months of January and May.All dates dependent upon the university schedule of the selected students. Internships are full-time and on-site in El Segundo CA. To be considered for this internship candidates must be actively enrolled in an accredited undergraduate or graduate degree program.

We are hiring a summer cybersecurity intern to help our Information security team with day to day work. You will help us watch for security alerts write things down clearly and gather the paperwork we need for our upcoming cybersecurity certification.

This is a real job not busywork. You will look at real alerts write real reports and help us get ready for a real audit. You will sit with our Cybersecurity Analyst and our InfoSec Engineer and you will learn how a security team works inside a company.

• Help review security alerts that come in each day. You will read them decide what they are and write down what you did about them.
• Help set up fine tune and improve the way our security tools are configured. These tools include Zscaler CrowdStrike ThreatLocker Darktrace and AlienVault. You will work with your lead to adjust settings clean up noisy alerts and make sure each tool is doing its job well.
• Help keep our security event logs up to date so we have a clear record of what happened and how it was handled.
• Pull sample logs from our security tools and organize them so we can show an auditor that we are watching the right things.
• Help keep track of the reports we get from our outside security partner making sure they arrive on time and get filed in the right place.
• Help upload reports and updates into the software we use to track our compliance work.
• Work on one bigger summer project that you own from start to finish. You will pick this with your lead in the first week. Some examples: a report on gaps in our logging a refreshed incident response guide or a simple dashboard.

• How a information security team runs its day to day work when the company has to pass a security audit.
• How the things we do every day (looking at alerts writing things down storing logs) turn into the proof an auditor wants to see.
• Hands on use of real security tools that protect computers networks web traffic software and user accounts. You will get real practice setting up and improving tools like Zscaler CrowdStrike ThreatLocker Darktrace and AlienVault.
• How to write clearly about technical problems so that people who are not technical can still understand you.
• How the different people on a information security team work together: the InfoSec Head the analyst the engineer the compliance manager and our outside security partners.

• You are a current undergrad in cybersecurity computer science information technology information systems or a similar major.
• You have taken classes or taught yourself at least two of these: networking how operating systems work how user accounts and passwords are managed how to respond to security incidents or how to watch for security problems.
• You are comfortable reading logs and working with data in a spreadsheet. You know what a basic script is even if you have not written many.
• You write clearly. You will be writing notes and reports that other people rely on.
• You are organized you pay attention to details and you are willing to ask questions when something is unclear.
• You are allowed to work in the United States for the full length of the internship without needing us to sponsor a visa.

• You are working toward a beginner certification like CompTIA Security Plus or Network Plus.
• You have played with security tools on your own in a home lab in a school club or in a capture the flag competition.
• You have used or read about any of these tools: Zscaler CrowdStrike ThreatLocker Darktrace AlienVault Okta or Vanta.
• You have heard of compliance frameworks like NIST 800 171 NIST 800 53 ISO 27001 or CMMC and understand the basics.
• You can write simple scripts in Python PowerShell or Bash.

• Hourly Rate: $33.00
• Housing stipend for interns relocating to the area
• Commuter benefit to support local transportation

Varda like all employers must ensure that its employees working in the United States are lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. Additionally our employees are exposed to and have access to certain export-controlled items. Because our employees are provided access to export-controlled items our policy is to only hire U.S. persons who are permitted to have access to our technology without an export license.

US person means: U.S. citizen U.S. lawful permanent resident or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) (i.e. individual admitted to the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum).