CNA Internship 2027–2028: Programs, Deadlines & How to Apply

Last updated: September 2026

First, the disambiguation, because search engines get this wrong constantly: this page is about CNA Financial Corporation, the Chicago-based commercial property and casualty insurer that trades on the NYSE as CNA and operates as CNA Insurance. It is not CNA Corporation, the Arlington non-profit at cna.org, and it has nothing to do with Certified Nursing Assistant certification. Now the news. CNA had eight intern requisitions live in early September 2026, and seven of them were technology roles: Software Engineering, Data Engineering, Data Analytics, Cybersecurity, Agile Product Design, and two separate AI tracks. The eighth was actuarial. There was no underwriting or claims internship on the board at all. The AI Strategy requisition is the one to read: it puts an intern on CNA's Digital Workplace Enablement and AI Strategy teams to pilot Microsoft 365 Copilot, help refine "AI governance policies, standards, and guidelines," and run risk assessments on generative AI tools. That is an AI-policy job at a regulated insurer, offered to an undergraduate. Seven of the eight requisitions went live on September 4, 2026 and the eighth on September 2, none carries a close date, and CNA is an 8th-largest US commercial insurer with more than 6,000 employees behind them.

Quick Facts

Eight Chicago requisitions opened within days of each other and none has a deadline, so review is rolling and week-one applications get read first. Pick one track that matches your major rather than applying to all seven technology roles.

Externships are short, remote professional experience programs where you finish a real project with a real company. The Wayfair AI Agent Engineering for Business Intelligence Externship and the Hydroficient IoT Cyber Defense Externship build exactly the AI-in-production and threat-assessment evidence CNA's seven technology requisitions describe. Explore all Externships.

What Is a CNA Internship?

A CNA internship is a summer program at CNA Financial Corporation, which describes itself as "one of the largest U.S. commercial property and casualty insurance companies," the eighth largest US commercial insurer, "backed by more than 125 years of experience," with more than 6,000 employees, 66 offices in 11 countries, 700-plus classes of business, $50.5 billion in invested assets and A+ financial strength ratings from A.M. Best, S&P and Fitch. CNA's own program overview documents six early-career products: three internships (Accounting and Finance, Actuarial, Technology) and three post-graduate trainee programs (Claims, Risk Control, Underwriting). Two of the three internships were live for the 2027 cycle. Every intern gets what CNA calls "a dedicated manager," and the technology tracks add a mentor on top, sessions with senior leadership, and "in-depth education in technology, the insurance industry, CNA's organization and how Technology plays a leading role in an insurer's profitability." CNA rates 3.6 out of 5 across 685 Indeed reviews.

When Do CNA Internship Applications Open for 2027–2028?

CNA batched its 2027 intern launch, which makes the timeline unusually legible. The Actuarial Intern requisition for Summer 2027 went live on September 2, 2026, and all seven Technology Internship Program requisitions went live together on September 4. Every one of them returned an empty end date, so there is no deadline to work backwards from. One naming caveat worth knowing: only the actuarial requisition carries "Summer 2027" in its title. The seven technology requisitions describe a ten to twelve week training program without naming a year, and were posted in the same batch as the Summer 2027 actuarial role. That makes summer 2027 the overwhelming inference, but CNA does not state it in those seven, so confirm the dates with the recruiter rather than assuming. What has not opened is as informative as what has: CNA's own program overview documents a ten-week Accounting and Finance internship that had no 2027 requisition, plus three post-graduate trainee programs that are a separate application entirely.

How to read this page: our dates come from tracking previous recruiting cycles and daily posting data. Treat them as informed estimates based on historical patterns, not confirmed dates. The company's official careers page is always the most current source. If a role is posted there, go by that, even if this page suggests the window hasn't opened yet.

Why You Must Apply the Week Applications Open

Eight openings, one city, no deadline. That combination looks generous and behaves like the opposite. With no close date, CNA is not running a batch review against a cutoff; it is reading applications as they arrive and filling seats as it finds people, which means the queue you join is the queue you compete in. Seven of the eight requisitions went live on the same day, September 4, 2026, so for a short window every applicant is genuinely early, and that window is closing as you read this. There is a second reason week one matters here specifically. CNA screens every applicant, in every track, on "interest in the insurance industry", and it prefers candidates with "some previous work experience." Both are things you can evidence today and neither improves by waiting. And there is a hard gate that makes hesitation expensive on the actuarial side: the requisition requires an expected graduation date between December 2027 and May 2029. If you fall inside that window this cycle, the window may not exist next cycle. Apply now, then spend the fall building the project you will talk about in the interview.

Which CNA Internship Programs Should You Target?

CNA documents six early-career programs in its own overview: three internships and three post-graduate trainee programs. Two internships were live for 2027, and the technology one is split into seven separate requisitions with different majors and different bars. They are not interchangeable.

One requisition deserves a warning label. The AI Engineering track is titled for AI but its stated work is infrastructure automation: VMware Cloud Foundation, Aria automation, NSX-T, vSAN, Ansible, Terraform, Chef and Puppet. Its requirements, meanwhile, ask for six months or more of work experience in artificial intelligence or machine learning plus a year of coding proficiency, the highest bar on the board. Read both halves before you apply, and ask about the mismatch in the interview. See everything live on CNA's Workday board.

What Are the Eligibility Requirements?

CNA states eligibility inside each requisition, and the actuarial and technology sides differ in ways that matter before you spend an application:

• GPA, technology: "A minimum 3.00 GPA is required (overall and major)." Both numbers have to clear, and the "and major" half is easy to miss. This line appears in the six technology requisition bodies retrieved for this research; the Cybersecurity body did not carry it.

• GPA, actuarial: "GPA of 3.25 or higher preferred" — a preference, not a floor.

• Class standing: technology requires sophomore, junior or senior undergraduate standing, or first year of a master's program. Actuarial requires at least sophomore standing.

• Graduation window, actuarial only: "Expected graduation date between Dec 2027 - May 2029." This is a hard gate. If you graduate in May 2027 you are ineligible for this requisition, full stop.

• Majors: Actuarial Science, Statistics or Mathematics for actuarial. Technology varies by track, from Computer Science and Computer Engineering for Software Engineering, to Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction for AI Strategy, to the unusually broad Cybersecurity list that explicitly welcomes Physical or Life Sciences and Accounting majors.

• Prior experience: "Some previous work experience preferred" across most technology tracks. Data Engineering and AI Engineering both require "1+ years of coding proficiency in at least one programming language (Python, R, SQL)", and AI Engineering adds six months or more of AI or ML work experience.

• Actuarial exam literacy: "Must be familiar with the Actuarial exam process", plus stated interest in pursuing an actuarial career after graduation.

• Work authorization: no sponsorship on any track. The technology wording is "must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future." The actuarial requisition goes further and names student visas, OPT and F-1 explicitly. There is no route here for international students.

Does CNA Have a Hard GPA Cutoff?

On the technology side, yes, and it is stricter than it first looks. "A minimum 3.00 GPA is required (overall and major)" is two thresholds, not one, and a strong overall GPA carried by electives will not clear a weak major GPA. On the actuarial side the wording changes to "preferred" at 3.25, which is a higher number expressed more softly. If you are under either line, the practical answer is to shift weight onto the things CNA repeats in all eight requisitions: demonstrated leadership ability, effective problem solving, and interest in the insurance industry. That last one is the real screen. For a company whose intern board is seven-eighths technology roles, asking every single applicant to show interest in insurance is a deliberate filter against students who want a tech internship and are indifferent to the industry. CNA publishes its own combined ratio, underlying loss ratio and expense ratio in its quarterly at-a-glance sheet. A candidate who can say what those mean, and why a 96.5% combined ratio carrying 2.3 points of catastrophe load is a coherent result, has answered the hardest question on the application without being asked.

What Skills Does CNA Look For, and How Do You Build Them?

CNA's requisitions are unusually specific about tooling, which makes preparation straightforward. Data Engineering names Google Cloud Platform, data lakes, SQL and NoSQL systems and data modeling. Software Engineering names Java-preferred object-oriented work, data structures, web development, SQL and database fundamentals, the Scaled Agile Framework and test-driven development on public cloud. Cybersecurity puts interns on emergent threat research, reputational checks against files and domains using open-source and proprietary analysis tools, information security reviews, and live incident investigation. AI Strategy pilots Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Web Chat, drafts AI governance policy, and runs risk assessments and control testing on generative AI. AI Engineering names VMware Cloud Foundation, Aria, NSX-T, vSAN, Ansible, Terraform, Chef and Puppet. Actuarial names the four placement areas and the exam process. Underneath all of it sits a shared block of non-technical requirements that CNA repeats in every requisition, which is the clearest sign of what is actually being scored.

How Is Demand for Insurance & Actuarial Interns Moving Right Now?

Build These Skills Before You Apply

And every skill in the chart maps to a remote Externship where you finish a real company project, which also answers CNA's stated preference for some previous work experience.

How close is the overlap? The Wayfair project is building and evaluating AI against a real business workflow, which is the AI Strategy requisition's own description of the job. The Hydroficient project is hands-on cyber defence work, mapping to a requisition that promises "a hands-on role across various domains of cybersecurity based on your interest." And the financial modeling project builds the quantitative reasoning behind actuarial pricing while giving you something concrete to say about CNA's own numbers, which is the differentiator in an interview where interest in insurance is explicitly scored.

What Is the CNA Application and Interview Process Like?

CNA publishes no interview-process description, no round count and no required-documents list. What it does publish is unusually transparent about how applications are handled, and that is worth reading before you submit:

1. Apply at cna.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/CNA_Careers, the only board CNA's careers page links to. CNA runs a dedicated employment-fraud warning page, so do not apply anywhere else.

2. Search by requisition ID or by "Intern". The 2027 slate is R-8026 (Actuarial), R-8107 (Software Engineering), R-8124 (Data Analytics), R-8125 (Agile Product Design), R-8126 (AI Engineering), R-8127-1 (AI Strategy), R-8129 (Data Engineering) and R-8130-1 (Cybersecurity).

3. Submit a clean, keyword-honest resume. CNA discloses that it "uses... AI-enabled tools which assist recruiters with administrative tasks but do not make autonomous employment decisions", that those tools are "subject to human oversight throughout the process", and that "all employment decisions at CNA are made by people." It also states that it prohibits using zip codes or similar data as proxies for protected characteristics. Write honestly; do not try to game the screen.

4. Expect a track-specific conversation. CNA publishes no stage list. Prepare behavioral answers plus depth on the named stack for your track, and prepare one story about presenting technical work to non-technical people, because public speaking and preparing a presentation are named development activities in the actuarial program.

5. Need an accommodation? CNA lists a single address for application and interview accommodations, repeated in every requisition: LeaveAdministration@cna.com.

6. Offer. Rolling, with no published date.

The best single piece of interview preparation for CNA is not technical. Every one of the eight requisitions asks for "interest in the Insurance Industry", and every technology requisition promises education in "how Technology plays a leading role in an insurer's profitability." Read CNA's own at-a-glance sheet, pick one of the eleven specializations it names, from Surety and Marine to Financial Lines and Healthcare, and be able to say why that one interests you. Our HireVue question guide with a free AI mock tool covers the same behavioral-question pressure and format.

None

Two of the three usable threads are directly about CNA's actuarial internship and the third is a first-hand employer-review thread from people who worked there. None of them contains a CNA pay figure, and this page does not manufacture one from the actuarial pay threads circulating on Reddit, because no comment in those threads names CNA.

How Do You Stand Out on a Board That Is Seven-Eighths Technology?

Five moves, and the first one is choosing correctly. CNA split technology into seven separate requisitions with different majors and different requirements, so applying to the one that matches your coursework beats applying to all seven, and a reviewer can tell which you did. Second, note the sleeper: AI Strategy accepts Information Systems, Human-Computer Interaction and Business Technology majors, and the work is AI governance and policy at a regulated insurer. If you are technical-adjacent rather than an engineer, that requisition was written for you. Third, note the other open door: Cybersecurity's major list reads "Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Physical/Life Sciences, Accounting or other related field", which is unusually broad, and its retrieved body is the one technology requisition that does not state a GPA minimum. Fourth, if you are actuarial, pass an exam before you apply. CNA states in writing that higher hourly rates are available to students who have passed one or more exams, which makes it both a pay lever and the cleanest possible evidence of the required familiarity with the exam process. Fifth, say something real about insurance. Interest in the industry is in all eight requisitions, and CNA names eleven specializations, Warranty, Affinity Business, Construction, Surety, Financial Lines, Small Business, Healthcare, National Accounts Property, Marine, National Accounts Casualty and Middle Market. Naming one and explaining why is specific in a way that "I want to work in insurance" is not, and almost no student applicant will do it.

What Other Companies Should You Consider?

CNA's peer set is US commercial property and casualty carriers with published early-career programs, most of them recruiting the same actuarial and technology students on the same fall calendar.

Our finance internships summer 2027 guide maps the full insurance and finance landscape, timeline by timeline.

FAQ

Can I still apply for a summer 2026 CNA internship?

No, that class has already run. What is open is summer 2027, and it opened days ago: eight intern requisitions were live on CNA's Workday board in early September 2026, the Actuarial Intern for Summer 2027 posted September 2 and all seven Technology Internship Program roles posted September 4. All eight are in Chicago and none has a published close date, so apply now rather than waiting for a cycle announcement.

Which CNA is this?

CNA Financial Corporation, the Chicago-based commercial property and casualty insurer that trades on the NYSE as CNA and operates as CNA Insurance. It is not CNA Corporation, the Arlington-based non-profit research organisation at cna.org, which runs its own separate internship, and it has nothing to do with Certified Nursing Assistant certification. If a search result takes you to cna.org, you are on the wrong company.

How much does a CNA internship pay?

Every one of the eight requisitions carries the same statutory disclosure: "the national base pay range for this job level is $35,000 to $65,000 annually." Read that carefully. It is an annualized job-level band required by Illinois and other pay-transparency jurisdictions, it is identical across all eight roles from actuarial to cybersecurity, and it is not what a ten-week summer pays. CNA publishes no hourly rate, so any hourly figure you see has been calculated by someone else. The one concrete lever CNA does publish is for actuarial candidates: "higher hourly rates are available to students who have passed one or more exams."

What GPA does CNA require for internships?

The technology requisitions state "a minimum 3.00 GPA is required (overall and major)", and both numbers have to clear. The actuarial requisition instead says "GPA of 3.25 or higher preferred", which is a preference rather than a floor. The Cybersecurity requisition body retrieved for this research does not carry a GPA line at all, listing knowledge requirements instead.

Does CNA sponsor international students for internships?

No. The technology requisitions require candidates to be "legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future." The actuarial requisition is more explicit still: "Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship or visas. We require unrestricted authorization to work in the U.S. (including student visas -OPT, F-1, etc.)." There is no route here.

Where is the CNA internship, and is housing provided?

All eight roles are at CNA's corporate headquarters, 151 N Franklin Street in downtown Chicago, which the requisitions describe as near all public transportation from the city and suburbs. For the actuarial program CNA states that "housing assistance will be provided to those candidates who qualify, based on their distance from the Chicago office", and asks for willingness to relocate to Chicago for the summer. No housing language appears in any of the technology requisitions, so do not assume it extends to them.

Are there CNA underwriting or claims internships?

Not on the current board. CNA's early-career portfolio has three internships, Accounting and Finance, Actuarial and Technology, and three post-graduate trainee programs, Underwriting at six to twelve months, Claims at one year and Risk Control at nine months. Underwriting and claims are entered through the trainee programs after graduation rather than through a summer internship. A 2018 Indeed review does describe a Risk Control internship in Houston, so the mix has varied historically.

Do CNA interns get full-time offers?

CNA publishes no conversion rate, so nobody should quote you one. All eight requisitions list "consideration for potential full-time placement upon graduation" among the program features, every intern gets a dedicated manager and the technology tracks add a mentor, and CNA runs three post-graduate trainee programs that are the documented routes into underwriting, claims and risk control. The actuarial requisition also tells you where the job leads, stating twice that full-time actuarial employees work hybrid out of Chicago or New York City.

CNA's eight Chicago requisitions opened days apart with no deadline behind them, which means the queue is the competition. Spend the same fortnight building proof: a remote Externship answers CNA's stated preference for previous work experience and gives you something specific to say about the industry.