Internships at Principal

Kick-start your career

Get your career off to a great start with a Principal internship.You’ll find lots of opportunities to gain hands-on experience, build your resume, make valuable connections and learn our business from the inside.

Here’s what you’ll get from a Principal internship:

Real responsibilities
Forget busywork and coffee-fetching. You’ll get actual responsibilities on projects that matter.

Competitive pay
You’ll do real work for us. You deserve real compensation.

Help with relocation
Almost half of our interns are from outside of Iowa. We help these interns with travel arrangements and can even provide housing support.

Access to executives
You’ll interact with leaders of your business unit and of Principal as a whole.

A great work environment
From our collaborative, inclusive culture to perks like a free wellness center and free parking, you’ll love the benefits of working at Principal.

An inside track to full-time work
Our intern group is one of the first places we look for many full-time job opportunities at Principal.

A supportive community
Each year, more than 200 interns from across the country work at our corporate headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa. This thriving intern community is a great source of fun, networking, and support.

Learn and network
Get the most out of your internship by participating in a variety of events focused on your professional and personal growth including: lunch and learns, team outings, personal finance seminars, and networking events. We also have a team of interns who create fun intern-only events such as weekend meetups around Des Moines, after hours socials, and lunch meetups.

Types of internships

Get hands-on experience with a summer internship. Or dive into more in-depth training with a six- to nine-month extended internship. Contact us to learn which options are available for your area of interest.

About our business

Not familiar with Principal? Let us introduce ourselves.

A leader in the financial services industry, we’re based in Des Moines, Iowa, and have offices around the world. We serve individuals, employers, advisors, and others with investments, retirement plans, insurance, banking, and more.

Internship areas

Internships are available throughout our organization, including:

Accounting

Get big-firm experience and work-life balance. You’ll use your research and analytical skills to help identify solutions we’ll use in the daily operations of our business.

Actuarial

Work closely with experienced, credentialed actuaries on meaningful work—while you develop the skills and knowledge you need to advance your actuarial career.
Learn more about actuarial internships

Investments

Be part of an immersive internship opportunity of three to six months. You’ll work with investment management, operations and global staff as you gain experience in one or more asset classes.

Marketing and communications

From strategic planning and data analytics to graphic design and copywriting, you’ll learn how we market our services—and you’ll help us do it better.

Technology and engineering

You’ll be placed in a role that is customized to fit the technology skills you are looking to grow! Join one of our agile teams to help engineer real solutions for our business partners and customers, using a variety of technologies and tools along the way.

Other internships

We have many internships in the areas listed above but time-to-time we have unique intern roles pop-up, some examples include human resources, sales, and strategy. Keep your eye on the job board for these opportunities.

Take the next step

Check out our internships and apply online.