Research Engineer/Scientist, R&D Internship

About the Role

Join the pioneering Software Innovation Lab team at IBM Software and contribute to shaping the future foundations of artificial intelligence. Our group of scientists and engineers are dedicated to conducting end-to-end research that delivers real-world AI impact through a rigorous, responsible, and open innovation framework. We are the R&D team that is the innovation engine of IBM Software. We are shaping the technologies that IBM customers rely on – today and in the future.

Key Responsibilities

• Explore cutting-edge research areas including data management and processing.
• Build systems where AI plans, uses external APIs, executes multi-step tasks independently, and develops enterprise agents with rigorous evaluation gates and compliance guardrails.
• Identify new algorithms for training and fine-tune LLMs.
• Engage in the full research lifecycle to pioneer new advancements in streaming and batch data processing & management and artificial intelligence.
• Identify core challenges, design novel prototype solutions, and validate them through rigorous experimentation.
• Conduct foundational research in critical areas such as agentic systems and databases, novel training algorithms, efficient fine-tuning, agentic architectures and their application to the data domain.
• Shepherd projects from ideation to completion in small, mentored teams.
• Disseminate significant results through publications in leading conferences and patent applications.

Internship Program Details

• Program Dates:
• Semester System: May 24, 2027 – August 13, 2027
• Quarter System: June 14, 2027 – September 3, 2027
• Candidates must be available to participate for the full duration of the internship corresponding to their academic schedule.
• Location: Research Hybrid Internship, San Jose, US (0147)

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Research Experience with Modern ML:
• Hands-on experience with agentic AI and a deep theoretical understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), Task Specific Small Language Models, and Transformer-based architectures.
• Understanding of technologies such as Kafka, Flink, PostgreSQL, Lakehouse, and SQL.
• Strong Programming & Prototyping Skills:
• Proficiency in Python for rapid prototyping, experimental setup, and implementing large-scale machine learning systems.
• Rigorous Analytical & Problem-Solving Abilities:
• Demonstrated strength in quantitative analysis, designing experiments, and deconstructing complex research problems.
• Proven Research & Communication Skills:
• A track record of innovation (evidenced by peer-reviewed publications or strong preprints).
• Ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts in both writing and presentations.
• Collaborative Research Mindset:
• A team-oriented approach with a commitment to rigorous, reproducible, and well-documented research practices.
• Research Excellence:
• Strong publication record in top-tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, VLDB, SIGMOD etc).
• Technical Proficiency:
• Advanced expertise in ML frameworks (PyTorch).
• Full-cycle development of algorithms and systems.
• Specialized Skills:
• Hands-on experience with generative AI (LLMs) and agentic systems, from training to testing.
• Communication:
• Demonstrated ability to present complex research and build high-impact technical demonstrations.