Catalyst Research Scientist Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Introduction

Join the pioneering AI Foundations Research team at IBM Research and contribute to shaping the future foundations of artificial intelligence. Our group of scientists, engineers, and designers is dedicated to conducting end-to-end research that delivers real-world AI impact through a rigorous, responsible, and open innovation framework. We are the team behind IBM's Granite open-source models, and our work spans multi-modal (vision, speech, language, code) and multi-lingual systems, data quality, data generation, novel model architectures, training recipes, governance and trustworthiness, and programming models for interacting with models. As an intern, you will explore cutting-edge research areas, including new algorithms for training, fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, and inference time scaling, alongside pioneering work in generative computing and generative programming for language, code, and other modalities, all within a collaborative environment that bridges fundamental science and transformative engineering.

Your role and responsibilities

As an AI Research Scientist Intern, you will engage in the full research lifecycle to pioneer new advancements in artificial intelligence. Your role will involve identifying core challenges, designing novel prototype solutions, and validating them through rigorous experimentation. You will conduct foundational research in critical areas such as novel training algorithms, efficient fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, and inference-time scaling for multi-modal models. Collaborating in small, mentored teams, you will be responsible for shepherding projects from ideation to completion. A key objective is to disseminate significant results through publications in leading conferences and patent applications, contributing to both the academic community and IBM's open innovation initiatives.

Required education

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred education

Master's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Research Experience with Modern ML: Hands-on experience with and a deep theoretical understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), Vision-Language Models (VLMs), and Transformer-based architectures.
• 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) and the 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.

Preferred technical and professional experience

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

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Research is the organic growth engine of IBM and an innovation engine for our customers and partners. As part of this mission, IBM Research anticipates and examines 'What's Next in Computing' to ultimately create and integrate the technologies the world relies upon to solve big challenges and unlock new opportunities. We create and pioneer new markets for IBM, our partners and customers as exemplified in our ongoing quest to reach practical and large-scale quantum computing. Across IBM Research, we realize the power and potential to accelerate discovery with our partners and clients by combining the power of high performance computing, AI, and Quantum, all integrated through the hybrid cloud.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you'll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you'll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM's greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we're also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it's time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

Supplemental 1 employees may be eligible for up to 8 paid holidays, minimum of 56 hours paid sick time and the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan. IBM offers paid family medical leave and disability benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law. This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 15 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role. We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

Job Title

AI Foundations - Research Scientist - Research Internship - 2027

Date posted

03-Sep-2026

Job ID

131827

City / Township / Village

Yorktown Heights, San Jose, Cambridge

State / Province

New York, Massachusetts, California

Country

United States

Work arrangement

Onsite

Area of work

Research

Employment type

Co-Op (Fixed Term)

Contract type

Internship

Projected Minimum Salary per year

81,840.00

Projected Maximum Salary per year

163,680.00

Position type

Internship

Travel required

No Travel

Company

(0147) International Business Machines Corporation

Shift

General (daytime)

Is this role a commissionable/sales incentive based position?

No