January 27, 2026

https://careers.pnnl.gov/jobs/11238?lang=en-us

  • United States; Seattle, Washington; Richland, Washington; Portland, Oregon
  • Energy Resiliency and Engineering
  • Temporary Part-Time

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking master students passionate about creating a sustainable energy future through science and engineering to join us for a 10 week paid summer internship as part of the Energy and Environment Internship Program (EEIP).

Participants will begin in cohort sessions and must be available to start on May 26, 2026, or June 16, 2026, as part of the Summer 2026 cohort.

EEIP interns in our Electricity Infrastructure & Buildings Division will experience firsthand how PNNL addresses some of our nation’s toughest problems in energy efficiency, electric grid modernization, and the integration of renewable energy, storage, and electric vehicles with the power grid. Join our division of over 400 experts and explore how your training in fields such as, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, architectural engineering and buildings sciences, systems engineering, data sciences, energy policy, and economics, can position you for a high impact career at a national lab.

You’ll be matched with a mentor based on your career interests, and project opportunities, and assigned to a research group working in one of the following areas:

  • Power Systems Engineering: grid architecture and communications, power system modeling and simulation, cyber and physical energy security.
  • Energy System Analytics and Control: learning and predictive analytics, control theory and system optimization, sensing and measurement, and advanced computing, including high-performance and edge computing.
  • Building System Sciences & Engineering: building energy modeling, electrical systems design and integration, whole-building performance evaluation and optimization, building technology testing and validation
  • Policy, Markets and Deployment: power market design and analysis, economic analysis and valuation, policy and regulatory analysis for buildings and electricity infrastructure, community energy transition planning.

Positions are based in Richland, WA, Seattle, WA and Portland, OR. Work is primarily on-site, with remote arrangements considered only in rare circumstances and strictly based on business need.

 

The Internship Experience

PNNL interns are fully integrated into research teams and supported through The Gold Experience, a summer-long program that includes professional development, networking with scientists and engineers across the lab, and exposure to the full breadth of PNNL’s research mission.

 

This internship is designed to accelerate your growth as a researcher and help you envision long-term career paths in national laboratory science. Many students return for multiple summers, and a number successfully transition into full-time roles at PNNL after graduation.

 

Why Apply?

  • Gain hands-on research experience in a national laboratory setting.
  • Collaborate with top scientists and engineers in cutting-edge research fields.
  • Build professional connections that can support future career opportunities.

If you’re motivated to apply your skills to real-world problems and gain hands-on research experience that can shape your career, we encourage you to apply.