2026 NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE)
Host Organization: NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE)
Website: https://ccdcoe.org/
Organization Profile: NATO CCDCOE is an international and multidisciplinary cyber defence hub established in 2008 and is accredited by NATO. Member nations includes 39 nations from NATO and beyond. Staff size is approximately 70.
NATO CCDCOE cooperates with national governments, NATO, academia, and the private sector. CCDCOE conducts research, training courses, and exercises. For the research activities, the Centre will actively search for cooperation partners from academia, industry, military, government and other research organizations. With all our activities, in our focus areas of technology, strategy, operations and law, we demonstrate our expertise in the field of cyber defence: The Tallinn Manual, the annual International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon) and Locked Shields, the world’s largest live fire technical cyber defence exercise Locked Shields.
City: Tallinn
Internship format: In-person
Internship Department: Strategy Branch
Department Description: Conducts cyber related policy research, conducts analysis, supports non-technical portion of cyber exercises, and drafts policy proposals.
Project description: Cyber is seen as a new warfare domain among NATO organizations. The demand for realistic cyber elements in exercises far exceeds the capacity of NATO bodies, including the NATO CCDCOE, to provide dedicated support.
To help close this gap, the NATO CCDCOE is developing a Cyber Playbook — a compendium of stand-alone, adaptable, and realistic cyber vignettes. Each vignette can be easily integrated into military or interagency exercises with minimal modification, enabling organizers to simulate cyber effects or background cyber campaigns even without dedicated cyber infrastructure or expertise.
The Playbook will be NATO UNCLASSIFIED and available for use by NATO and NATO-aligned entities seeking to incorporate credible cyber dynamics into their exercises.
The intern will support the development of the Cyber Playbook by drafting, adapting, and refining the short cyber vignettes for use in NATO and partner exercises. Tasks will include identifying plausible cyber incidents, framing them as exercise scenarios with clear triggers and outcomes, and formatting them for inclusion in the Playbook. The intern may also assist in reviewing or editing existing vignettes to improve clarity, consistency, and usability across different exercise contexts.
Number of Opening(s): 2
Work Hours and Internship Start/End Dates: Monday to Friday, June 15 –August 7, 2026
Work Attire: Business Casual
Local language: Estonian
Local language level needed: Not required. English is the working language of the CCDCOE
Additional desired intern qualifications: Focused work ethic, ability to stay on task and not require constant hands-on management.
- Global Studies minors in European Studies will receive preference.
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- Local language skills are based on the internship description requirements.
- Global Studies minors receive preference for the program.
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