Internships in Des Moines

Included market. The Des Moines–West Des Moines market includes downtown and the East Village, West Des Moines corporate campuses, Urbandale and Johnston, Ankeny, and Altoona data and logistics sites.

Employment node: Downtown insurance, finance, and government · What a student should verify: This node can contain government, finance, consulting, law, nonprofit, and headquarters work. Public-sector and private-employer calendars should be tracked separately.

Employment node: East Village · What a student should verify: Confirm the exact office or facility, legal employer, team, commute, work mode, and project before treating this node as a good fit.

Employment node: West Des Moines corporate campuses · What a student should verify: Search faculty labs, centers, technology transfer, hospital affiliates, and central administration separately. Funding and application windows may be project-specific.

Employment node: Urbandale and Johnston · What a student should verify: Confirm the exact office or facility, legal employer, team, commute, work mode, and project before treating this node as a good fit.

Employment node: Ankeny · What a student should verify: Confirm the exact office or facility, legal employer, team, commute, work mode, and project before treating this node as a good fit.

Employment node: Altoona data centers and logistics · What a student should verify: Separate corporate analytics from terminal, hub, warehouse, or field operations. Check shift timing, secure-area access, physical requirements, and transit outside normal office hours.

Transit and commute reality. DART serves the urban core and selected suburbs. Many suburban campuses, data centers, and industrial sites require a car. Data-center employment must be separated into facilities, network, security, operations, and software roles.

Before applying, check the route at the required arrival and departure time. A transit trip that works at noon may fail for a 6:00 a.m. plant shift, an overnight logistics assignment, a weekend hospitality schedule, or a secure facility with a long walk from the gate. Include parking, tolls, fuel, insurance, winter or heat risk, and unpaid commute time in the offer model.

For Des Moines, the feasibility review starts with the geography: The Des Moines–West Des Moines market includes downtown and the East Village, West Des Moines corporate campuses, Urbandale and Johnston, Ankeny, and Altoona data and logistics sites. The transport test is equally direct: DART serves the urban core and selected suburbs. Many suburban campuses, data centers, and industrial sites require a car. Data-center employment must be separated into facilities, network, security, operations, and software roles. The access test is: Insurance applicants should specify actuarial, underwriting, claims, finance, investment, technology, or operations. A major data-center footprint does not prove a local product or software-development team. A student should complete all three checks before investing heavily in an application, because a technically suitable role can still fail on commute, housing, schedule, or eligibility.

No citywide intern wage is published here. Compensation varies by occupation, academic level, employer, worksite, overtime status, and bargaining or regulatory context. Use this order of evidence:

• written recruiter or offer documentation;
• Historical example · 2026-09-04
  historical or employee-reported data, labeled as secondary and dated;
• occupation-level metropolitan wage data as context only.

Build a weekly and full-program budget. Include after-tax pay, overtime only when the role confirms it, relocation payments and tax treatment, housing, utilities, deposits, furniture, travel, duplicate rent, parking or transit, vehicle costs, food, professional clothing, licensing or screening expenses, and an emergency reserve. Compare offers using net cash and learning value, not annualized salary.

Insurance applicants should specify actuarial, underwriting, claims, finance, investment, technology, or operations. A major data-center footprint does not prove a local product or software-development team.

A role labeled hybrid is usually tied to a named office and required attendance pattern; it is not remote-anywhere permission. A virtual interview is not evidence of a remote internship. For plants, hospitals, laboratories, bases, ports, airports, mines, construction sites, and field assignments, ask about onboarding lead time and every access condition before committing to housing.

Record these fields independently:

• present work authorization;
• future sponsorship;
• citizenship;
• export-control eligibility;
• security clearance or suitability;
• background and drug screening;
• driver's license, vehicle, and travel;
• clinical, laboratory, or professional credentials;
• physical, PPE, shift, and safety requirements;
• academic credit or enrollment requirements.

Silence means unknown, not no.

Adjacent or excluded markets. Ames, Cedar Rapids–Iowa City, Omaha, and Kansas City remain separate. Ames can be cross-linked for university and agriculture recruiting but is not silently included.

This boundary should be enforced in both the page and the underlying role database. Store the actual city, state, office or facility, employer, and commute node. Do not use a broad metro tag to hide cross-state employment, a remote field site, a military installation, a plant outside the core, or an affiliated company with separate hiring.

Dated role · 2026-09-04
The names below are research targets, not verified current openings. Use each employer's official site and preserve the direct requisition.

• Principal Financial Group
• Wells Fargo
• Athene
• Nationwide
• EMC Insurance
• Corteva
• John Deere
• Hy-Vee
• Meta and Microsoft data-center operations

A good search also includes suppliers, smaller local firms, public authorities, hospitals, university centers, venture-backed companies, nonprofits, professional-services offices, and project contractors. Those organizations often hire later or through campus relationships, but they should not be invented from a general industry list. Every employer belongs in the page only after identity and local presence are confirmed.

Local opportunity surface: Insurance and insurtech · Representative student work: actuarial, underwriting, claims, product, software, data, risk, investments, operations, and customer experience · Likely majors: actuarial science, finance, math, statistics, computer science, MIS, economics, risk management, and data science · Strong proof asset: An actuarial or underwriting model, claims automation, pricing analysis, product brief, fraud study, or policy-data dashboard. · Main caution: Do not convert a general insurer into a technology role without direct evidence. Regulated insurance work and software-product work have different bars.

Local opportunity surface: Finance and insurance · Representative student work: corporate finance, banking, insurance, actuarial, underwriting, credit, audit, treasury, investment operations, risk, compliance, and analytics · Likely majors: finance, accounting, economics, actuarial science, math, statistics, MIS, data science, and business analytics · Strong proof asset: A financial model, credit memo, actuarial analysis, underwriting case, variance study, audit test, risk dashboard, or investment memo. · Main caution: Banking, insurance, investments, and corporate finance are not one lane. Recruiter calendars, licensing, work mode, and technical screens vary by function.

Local opportunity surface: Food and agriculture · Representative student work: agronomy, food science, operations, procurement, commodity analysis, supply chain, quality, manufacturing, finance, sales, and data · Likely majors: agriculture, food science, biology, chemistry, chemical or industrial engineering, supply chain, finance, economics, and data analytics · Strong proof asset: A crop or yield model, food-safety study, plant improvement, demand forecast, commodity memo, supplier analysis, or cold-chain plan. · Main caution: Farm, processor, brand, equipment maker, cooperative, and distributor roles differ. Seasonal timing, rural travel, shifts, and food-safety rules may apply.

Local opportunity surface: Technology and data · Representative student work: software, data engineering, analytics, product, cloud, IT, AI, cybersecurity, implementation, business systems, and technical operations · Likely majors: computer science, MIS, data science, math, statistics, engineering, economics, finance, and product-related disciplines · Strong proof asset: A deployed application, clean repository, data pipeline, SQL analysis, experiment, product requirements document, dashboard, or automation with a real user. · Main caution: A local technology office may focus on sales, support, operations, or infrastructure rather than product engineering. The direct team and work product control.

Local opportunity surface: Data centers and digital infrastructure · Representative student work: facilities engineering, critical power, cooling, network operations, hardware deployment, security, construction, procurement, and site operations · Likely majors: electrical, mechanical, industrial, computer, network engineering, construction management, cybersecurity, supply chain, and operations · Strong proof asset: A power or cooling model, uptime and failure analysis, network lab, capacity plan, maintenance workflow, or construction schedule. · Main caution: A hyperscale data-center presence does not prove local software or product roles. Many jobs are facilities, hardware, network, construction, or shift operations.

Local opportunity surface: Government and public service · Representative student work: policy, budgeting, audit, data, planning, procurement, economic development, public health, communications, law, and program operations · Likely majors: public policy, political science, economics, finance, accounting, urban planning, public health, data science, communications, and engineering · Strong proof asset: A policy memo, budget model, program evaluation, GIS analysis, public dashboard, procurement study, or constituent-service process improvement. · Main caution: Federal, state, local, authority, and contractor roles use different hiring systems. Citizenship, residency, suitability, unpaid status, and long timelines may apply.

Local opportunity surface: Logistics and transportation · Representative student work: network planning, operations, industrial engineering, procurement, fleet, warehousing, data, finance, safety, and customer solutions · Likely majors: supply chain, industrial engineering, operations, data analytics, finance, economics, MIS, and mechanical engineering · Strong proof asset: A network optimization, warehouse-flow study, demand or volume forecast, fleet-cost model, routing analysis, or service-level dashboard. · Main caution: Corporate planning, warehouse, hub, terminal, fleet, and driver-facing roles differ. Shifts, physical work, and remote sites may apply.

Local opportunity surface: Advanced manufacturing · Representative student work: manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, quality, automation, controls, maintenance reliability, production planning, operations analytics, procurement, EHS, and plant finance · Likely majors: industrial, mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, materials, chemical, supply chain, operations, MIS, finance, and data analytics · Strong proof asset: A line-balance study, OEE or downtime analysis, fixture or tooling design, SPC dashboard, root-cause report, capacity model, or quantified Lean improvement. · Main caution: Plant roles may use shifts, PPE, physical requirements, drug screening, and fixed on-site attendance. The exact facility and legal employer control.

Des Moines should be treated as a portfolio of work nodes rather than one interchangeable labor market. The first-pass target set spans Downtown insurance, finance, and government, East Village, West Des Moines corporate campuses, and Urbandale and Johnston. The employer portfolio spans Principal Financial Group, Wells Fargo, Athene, Nationwide, EMC Insurance, and Corteva. A student should distribute applications across several employer types so that one early-closing program, clearance barrier, or weak local hiring cycle does not eliminate the whole search.

• "Des Moines" internship "Insurance and insurtech"
• "Des Moines" co-op "Finance and insurance"
• "Des Moines" student analyst "Food and agriculture"
• "Principal Financial Group" internship "Des Moines"
• "Wells Fargo" internship "Des Moines"
• "Athene" internship "Des Moines"
• "Nationwide" internship "Des Moines"
• "EMC Insurance" internship "Des Moines"
• "Drake University" internship career fair "Des Moines"
• "Des Moines Area Community College" internship career fair "Des Moines"
• "Grand View University" internship career fair "Des Moines"

• Access to Insurance and insurtech, Finance and insurance, Food and agriculture, Technology and data, and Data centers and digital infrastructure.
• A defined set of research targets: Principal Financial Group, Wells Fargo, Athene, Nationwide, EMC Insurance, and Corteva.
• Campus and talent channels through Drake University, Des Moines Area Community College, Grand View University, and Iowa State University nearby.
• The chance to build city-specific knowledge rather than compete only through national generalist applications.

Local matches: Advanced manufacturing. Target the physical system, facility, product, or project. Put one technically deep example near the top of the résumé and show requirements, constraints, method, measurements, result, and safety judgment. Search by discipline and asset, not only by the word intern.

Local matches: Insurance and insurtech and Finance and insurance. Choose the actual lane: FP&A, audit, credit, banking, actuarial, underwriting, claims, investments, treasury, risk, compliance, or payments. Prepare a role-matched model or memo and learn the employer's business economics rather than using generic finance language.

• a major employer opens a new student cycle;
• a direct role changes state or deadline;
• a company opens, closes, moves, sells, or materially restructures a local operation;
• a new transit service changes a practical commute;
• a new official wage, housing, or economic dataset is released;
• an employer changes sponsorship, work-mode, relocation, or screening terms;
• a reviewer finds a geographic or legal-employer collision.

• Current opening and closing dates by employer and function.
• Current compensation, overtime treatment, bonus, housing, and relocation.
• Current work mode and required office days.
• Current graduation, GPA, major, authorization, sponsorship, citizenship, and clearance rules.
• Intern-to-return-intern or intern-to-full-time conversion rate.
• Current housing price and availability near each work node.

Start with a role family in the local employer map, then narrow by the actual reporting site. Save the employer-controlled posting before treating a name on this page as an opportunity. For each viable role, compare the work, enrollment requirements, stated compensation unit and the cost of reaching that site. A regional employer list is not a verified vacancy list.

Historical example · 2026-09-04
Use the local transport and housing sources for the schedule you would actually work. Keep a quote for the correct dates and a cash plan for deposits or costs due before the first paycheck; historical housing figures in the research are not current offers.

Des Moines is one of the strongest lower-cost U.S. markets for insurance, finance, agricultural technology, enterprise operations, public service, and selected data-infrastructure work.