POSITION: Graduate Internships; Summer 2025

Verisign Labs is seeking highly motivated graduate student summer interns to collaborate with our research scientists on subject areas related to our research portfolio. Summer project topics are mutually beneficial to both Verisign and students, with interns applying and expanding their expertise over novel data and problem spaces. The goal is to create artifacts that not only benefit Verisign, but also contribute to one’s graduate track (e.g., dissertation-pertinent research). While working collaboratively and closely with Verisign mentors, students will be responsible for identifying novel but operationally relevant research challenges and are expected to be self-motivated and independent in their daily work.

Past years’ intern work has resulted in internal product advancements, intellectual property (i.e., patents), and externally facing conference/journal publications. Given Verisign’s broad business capabilities and the diversity of our scientists’ expertise, the Lab seeks interns from a breadth of disciplines.  Current projects include DNS privacy/security/stability, DNS zone change analysis, DNS traffic analysis, impact of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms on Internet protocols, alternate namespaces, and future Internet design -- and this is just a small sampling of the topics that our researchers tackle.

In addition to research work, interns participate in programming that embraces the technical, business, and social opportunities the Summer provides. These include technical talks and speakers’ series about Verisign’s business, technology, and industry; small talks with senior level company executives; fun networking events and activities with the broader Intern Class; and partnerships with our Young Professionals Group.

As a global leader in domain names and Internet security, Verisign is responsible for the operational accuracy and stability of .COM and .NET, a number of other top-level domains, and two of the Internet’s root servers; answering over 347.2 billion queries daily. 

Verisign Labs is the applied research lab that generates insights from this wealth of Internet-scale DNS, routing, and security data. Proprietary data sets, large-scale operations onsite, a computing infrastructure built for “big data”, and last, but not least, a diverse team of expert researchers are among our most prominent assets.

Responsibilities:

• Work with technology/business leaders to identify pertinent and mutually beneficial research questions.
• Independently propose, develop, and evaluate solutions under the mentorship of a Verisign thought leader.
• Document and present research results in appropriate forums (internal and external).

Qualifications:

• Current enrollment in a US-based PhD or MS degree program in CS or a related field.
• Availability for ≈12 weeks of summer
• Involvement in applied/operational research; publications are a significant plus (include a complete CV).
• Experience in one or more of the following technology areas:
• DNS evolution, security, and privacy including the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC)
• Domain name registration and data services
• Internet-scale measurement and analysis techniques
• Blockchain and decentralization technologies
• Cryptographic techniques and protocols

See some of our recent research at:

• Publications
• Open-Source Repositories

This position is based in our Reston, VA office and offers a hybrid work schedule. Interns must reside in the Washington, DC metro area for the duration of their internship.

The pay range for this role is $30.00 - $45.00 per hour.

The anticipated pay range for this position is noted above, however, base pay offered may vary depending on level of education, job-related knowledge, skills and experience.