Research Scientist

IBM

IBM

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Posted on Apr 30, 2026
Introduction

At IBM Research, we are the innovation engine of IBM. Exploring what’s next in computing and shaping the technologies the world will rely on tomorrow. From advancing AI and hybrid cloud to pioneering practical quantum computing, we anticipate challenges and unlock new opportunities for clients, partners, and society. Working in Research means joining a team that accelerates discovery at the intersection of high-performance computing, AI, quantum, and cloud. You’ll collaborate with leading scientists, engineers, and visionaries to push boundaries and turn ideas into reality. With a culture built on curiosity, creativity, and collaboration, IBM Research offers the opportunity to grow your career while contributing to breakthroughs that transform industries and change the world.

Your role and responsibilities

As a Research Scientist in Artificial Intelligence, you will lead and execute frontier AI research across modern machine learning paradigms. You will invent, analyze, and validate novel algorithms; connect theoretical insights with large‑scale experimental results; and translate research breakthroughs into real‑world, user‑facing systems.

You will work across foundation models, deep learning, reinforcement learning, and generative computing, contributing to both theoretical understanding and practical impact at scale.

Required education
Doctorate Degree
Preferred education
Doctorate Degree
Required technical and professional expertise
Key ResponsibilitiesLead Cutting‑Edge AI Research
  • Define and lead high‑impact research agendas in areas such as:
    • Generative computing inspired agentic development for small models
    • Reinforcement learning and decision‑making under uncertainty
    • Formal algebra and applications to AI Software Development
  • Drive projects from problem formulation through theoretical analysis, experimentation, and system integration.
Develop Novel Algorithms and Techniques
  • Small‑Model‑Friendly Agent Harnesses: Build evaluation and execution harnesses tailored for small, efficient models, enabling reliable agentic reasoning, tool use, and planning under tight latency and compute constraints.
  • Develop new generative computing (see mellea.ai) architectures for next wave of AI software development.
  • Train customised models including data quality analysis, synthetic data generation, training and evaluation for small model agentic harnesses
Theory, Analysis, and Experimental Rigor
  • Develop rigorous mathematical formulations and proofs to analyze algorithmic properties (e.g., convergence, generalization, robustness).
  • Design statistically sound experiments, benchmarks, and ablations to validate research hypotheses.
  • Measure impact on both offline metrics and end‑to‑end user experience.
Bridge Research and Real‑World Systems
  • Embed research prototypes into production‑grade or large‑scale experimental systems.
  • Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure research outcomes translate into robust, efficient, and usable AI solutions.
Publish and Communicate Research
  • Publish and present original research in venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL etc
  • Communicate insights clearly to technical and business stakeholders.
Preferred technical and professional experience

Expertise in AI Frameworks: Experience with latest RL frameworks and agentic harnesses.

• Publication in Top-Tier Communities: Experience with publishing research in top-tier technical communities, such as Neurips, ICML, ICLR, IJCAI, AAAI, etc demonstrating expertise in communicating complex research findings.

• Advanced AI Technique Development: Experience in creating and leveraging machine learning, NLP, and other AI techniques to solve complex analytical problems using rigorous and quantitative approaches.

Years of Experience:
2 - 4

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

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