is Hiring Research Scientist R&D Intern (Yorktown Heights, Cambridge)

About the Role

Join the Software Innovation Lab team at IBM Software and help shape the future foundations of artificial intelligence. Our scientists and engineers conduct end-to-end research that delivers real-world AI impact through a rigorous, responsible, and open innovation framework. As the R&D team behind IBM Software's innovation, we shape technologies that IBM customers rely on today and in the future.

As an intern, you will advance agent architectures and domain-specific models for business processes, IT and industrial automation, and software engineering across distributed and non-distributed environments. You will also develop responsible AI systems and enterprise-grade benchmarks that help enterprises personalize services, automate operations, optimize workflows, predict demand, and deliver outcomes.

As an AI Research Scientist Intern, you will take part in the full research lifecycle. Your work will include identifying core challenges, designing novel prototype solutions, and validating them through rigorous experimentation. Focus areas include foundation models and multimodal AI, business process intelligence and automation, IT and industrial automation, AI for software engineering, reliable and scalable agentic systems, AI security and trustworthiness, enterprise knowledge graphs, continual agent learning and adaptation, and knowledge-guided workflow orchestration.

You will work in small, mentored teams and be responsible for moving projects from ideation to completion. A key goal is to share significant results through publications in leading conferences and patent applications, supporting both the academic community and IBM's open innovation initiatives.

Program Dates

Start dates vary based on your academic calendar.

• Semester System: May 24, 2027 to August 13, 2027
• Quarter System: June 14, 2027 to September 3, 2027

Candidates must be available for the full duration of the internship that matches their academic schedule.

By applying, you agree to be considered for any of the listed locations for this position and to work at the location where you are ultimately assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Research experience in modern AI and systems: hands-on experience and theoretical foundations in one or more of foundation and multimodal models, agentic systems, AI for software engineering, knowledge graphs, continual learning, process intelligence, or distributed systems.
• Strong programming and prototyping skills: proficiency in Python for rapid prototyping, experimental setup, and implementing large-scale machine learning systems.
• Rigorous analytical and problem-solving abilities: demonstrated strength in quantitative analysis, experiment design, and breaking down complex research problems.
• Proven research and communication skills: a track record of innovation (evidenced by peer-reviewed publications or strong preprints) and the ability to clearly explain complex technical concepts in writing and presentations.
• Collaborative research mindset: a team-oriented approach with a commitment to rigorous, reproducible, and well-documented research practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong publication record in top-tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, AAAI).
• Advanced expertise in ML frameworks (PyTorch) and full-cycle development of algorithms and systems.
• Hands-on experience with generative AI (LLMs) and multimodal models, from training to testing.
• Ability to present complex research and build high-impact technical demonstrations.