Cloud Infrastructure Network Monitoring and Automation Software Engineer Intern Dallas TX

Introduction

Introduction

At IBM, work is more than a job. It is a calling:
To build. To design. To code. To consult. To think along with clients and sell. To make markets. To invent. To collaborate. Not just to do something better, but to attempt things you have never thought possible.

Are you ready to lead in this new era of technology and solve some of the world's most challenging problems?

IBM Cloud is the global public cloud platform from IBM, one of the most secure, scalable, and enterprise‑ready cloud platforms in the world. IBM Cloud powers thousands of enterprises with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings delivered across public, private, and hybrid cloud models.

Within IBM Cloud, the Network Underlay organization is responsible for designing, building, and operating the physical and software‑defined network infrastructure that underpins IBM Cloud's global fleet of data centers. Net Tools is the automation and tooling engineering team within Network Underlay. We build the software systems that allow network engineers to provision, configure, monitor, and manage network infrastructure at scale, across dozens of data centers globally.

The Network Automation mission within Net Tools develops and operates three interconnected platforms: NCS/Axon (Network Configuration Service), the system that automates the full lifecycle of network switch configuration from initial rack bring‑up to day‑to‑day operations; SSOT (Source of Truth) and Hivemind, the authoritative data stores for network configuration state in classic and next‑generation data center environments respectively; and the associated monitoring, validation, and reporting pipelines that keep our network infrastructure compliant, observable, and reliable.

As a Back‑End Software Engineering Intern on the Net Tools Network Automation team, you will work alongside the engineers actively building and evolving the Axon/NCS platform and the SSOT/Hivemind systems. This is a hands‑on engineering role: you will contribute directly to production‑grade back‑end services and automation pipelines that are critical to the daily operation of IBM Cloud's network infrastructure.

Your work will include:

• Contribute to the Axon/NCS project: participate in the development of back‑end Python microservices that implement Day‑0 (initial network provisioning, Zero Touch Provisioning) and Day‑2 (operational changes, firmware updates, configuration drift remediation) automation workflows. This includes working on REST API endpoints, YAML‑driven input processing, and Jinja2‑based configuration generation pipelines that produce switch conf+B30igurations deployed across IBM Cloud data centers.
• Build and improve automated test coverage: help design and implement unit and integration tests for the Axon/NCS platform. One of the team's active priorities is establishing a regression test framework and test environment; the intern will make direct contributions to closing that gap, including authoring test cases, identifying edge conditions, and validating end‑to‑end workflow correctness.
• Support SSOT and Hivemind integration work: assist in developing or improving the interfaces between NCS/Axon and the SSOT/Hivemind data platforms (backed by Net Box and Cockroach DB), ensuring that network context data (rack topology, port mappings, cable connections, device inventory) is reliably consumed and validated by the automation workflows.
• Reduce technical debt and improve documentation: contribute to the ongoing NCS Overhaul initiative by helping refactor tightly coupled components, improving Docker container configuration practices, and writing…