HDS Software Development Intern, Fall Job in Washington, DC

Vacancy No. req3802 Department House of Representatives
Salary $36,469.00 to $36,469.00 Grade 1 to 1
Perm/Temp Temporary FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 6/11/2025 Close Date 6/26/2025
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Washington, DC


Summary

HDS interns will assist the small and agile HDS team in their work, including research, design, implementation, coding, and testing of various technology solutions for congressional offices.

This job is open to

Clarification from the agency

Open to the public

Duties

Job Summary:

The Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) provides operations support services and business solutions to the community of 10,000 House Members, Officers and staff. The CAO organization comprises more than 650 technical and administrative staff working in a variety of areas, including information technology, finance, budget management, human resources, payroll, child care, food and vending, procurement, logistics and administrative counsel.

Established in January 2022, the CAO’s House Digital Service (HDS) helps solve the unique technology challenges experienced by Member, Committee, and Leadership offices in Congress. From application design and development to data analysis and identifying the latest technological solutions, HDS's mission is to make sure the People’s House is working efficiently for the American people.

HDS interns will assist the small and agile HDS team in their work, including research, design, implementation, coding, and testing of various technology solutions for congressional offices. HDS interns will learn what it's like to work with a modern, agile, user-focused, transparent, and collaborative development team.

* paid at an annual rate of $36,469 not to exceed 120 days

** The CAO standard business hours are 8:30 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. This is a full-time, 40-hour-per-week internship that will require onsite attendance in Washington, D.C.

The position does not have day-to-day supervisory/managerial responsibilities

Primary Duties/Responsibilities:

  •  Design and build rapid prototypes of AI-driven web applications to demonstrate feasibility and value
  • Integrate AI tools and libraries into existing web application products by building dashboards, chatbots, or backend components
  • Explore large language models and other tools for tasks like text generation, summarization, chat interfaces
  • Connect web chat clients to internal data sources by customizing Model Context Protocol (MCP) configurations
  • Evaluating the effectiveness and validity of ML product outputs (accuracy, precision, recall, etc.)
  • Conduct research on foundational and emerging ML/NLP methodologies, and provide strategic guidance to the team on optimizing key configuration parameters—including vector similarity metrics, decoding strategies, embedding dimensionality, and tokenization limits for improved performance and scalability in applied AI systems.
  • Performs other official duties as assigned.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • USAJobs Conditions of Employment

Qualifications

Minium Qualifications

  • Currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in a technical or quantitative discipline, including computer science or a related field
  • Candidates should demonstrate interest and/or experience in public service
  • Candidates must be a team player and possess a high level of attention to detail.
  • Candidates must possess a willingness to take initiative, generate creative ideas, and work under deadline pressure.

Preferred Qualifications

Preference given to recent college graduates or those soon-to-graduate who have demonstrated expertise in AI/ML development for the web, including any of the following:

  • Natural Language Processing, tokenization, anonymization, embeddings, sentiment analysis, vector similarity search, Model Context Protocol
  • Front-end, back-end, and full-stack engineering with tools such as Javascript, Node.js, React, Python
  • An ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences

Continued employment is contingent upon satisfactorily completing a criminal history records check (or other applicable security clearance) and a pre-employment drug-test (pre-identified position only).

Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

You will be evaluated using a structured interview process.

Required Documents

Resume

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

How to Apply

Qualified candidates please submit your resume online by following the instructions in this link.

Agency contact information

CAO Human Resources
Phone
202-225-2926
Address
CAO
441 2nd St
Washington, DC 20515

Next steps

Qualified Candidates will be contacted directly.


Note: We cannot accept applications on behalf of Federal Agencies. Application instructions are listed within the Job Description.