AI Applied Researcher

0701 AGS - IP Company; Dublin; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Private health insurance

Gym membership discount

Charity leave

Flexible work arrangements

Job summary

Accenture Ireland's AI R&D team seeks an Applied Scientist to translate state-of-the-art ML/AI into practical, scalable solutions across datasets, products, and client environments.

You will own the end-to-end lifecycle from problem formulation to deployment and measurable outcomes, collaborating with researchers, engineers, and product stakeholders in a cross‑functional setting.

The role offers flexible working arrangements and a comprehensive benefits package.

Qualifications

• Master’s + 2–3 years industry exp or PhD in CS/AI (AI/ML/NLP) with 1–2 years industry exp.
• Strong foundation in ML, including supervised learning, embeddings, evaluation metrics, and data preprocessing.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication for presentations.
• Experimental design: baselines, controlled experiments, quantitative metrics.
• Ability to collaborate with researchers, engineers, and product stakeholders.
• Experience integrating external knowledge sources into LLM/SLM systems.

Responsibilities

• Research synthesis of latest AI/ML papers and industry developments.
• Adapt foundation and compact language models to domains using fine‑tuning, continued pre‑training, distillation, LoRA, etc.
• Design and implement agentic LLM systems with external tools (APIs, databases, services).
• Prototype development with Senior Research Scientists to build and test proofs‑of‑concepts.
• Disseminate research findings through papers and presentations for academic and business audiences.
• Craft narratives and demos that translate outcomes into business value.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

LLMs

NLP

Knowledge graphs

Education

Master’s or PhD in CS/AI

Tools

APIs

Databases

Job description

Job Description

Join the Accenture Labs' AI R&D Team and work on core AI Models / technology that work across multiple domains.

The Opportunity: As an Applied Scientist, you will sit at the intersection of advanced AI research and real‑world business impact. You will translate state‑of‑the‑art machine learning and AI techniques into practical, scalable solutions that solve complex problems across real datasets, products, and client environments. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys moving beyond pure research to own the end‑to‑end lifecycle of AI solutions—from problem formulation and experimentation to validation, deployment, and measurable outcomes.

Key Responsibilities & Impact

• Research Synthesis: Review, analyze, and strategically summarize the latest academic and industry research in technical domains (e.g., LLM domain adaptation, knowledge integration, reasoning techniques).
• Adapt foundation and compact language models to specialized domains using techniques such as fine‑tuning, continued pre‑training, distillation, and parameter‑efficient methods (e.g. LoRA).
• Design and implement agentic LLM systems that integrate external tools (APIs, databases, services, rule engines) to perform precision and verifiable tasks.
• Hands‑on Prototype Development: Collaborate directly with Senior Research Scientists to rapidly design, build, and test Proof‑of‑Concepts.
• Research Dissemination: Articulate complex research findings into clear, persuasive, and publishable papers and presentations for both academic and business audiences.
• Strategic Storytelling: Craft engaging narratives and technical demonstrations that translate research outcomes into clear, compelling value propositions.

Job Qualifications

• Master’s plus 2‑3 years industry experience or PhD in Computer Science / AI (Area of Study: AI / ML / NLP) with 1‑2 years industry experience.
• Strong foundation in machine learning, including supervised learning, embeddings, evaluation metrics, and data preprocessing.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Good written and verbal communication abilities, with the capacity to structure presentations for maximum clarity and impact.
• Experimental design expertise, including the ability to design controlled experiments, define meaningful baselines, and interpret results using appropriate quantitative metrics.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with researchers, engineers, and product stakeholders in cross‑functional environments.
• Ability to track, evaluate, and apply relevant research literature.
• Strong programming skills in Python, including experience with libraries such as PyTorch (preferred), TensorFlow.
• Primary Skills: Ability to implement custom models (neural networks, transformers), layers, or loss functions.
• Small Language Models (SLMs): hands‑on experience building, adapting, and evaluating compact language models; understanding of domain adaptation techniques, efficiency trade‑offs, and deployment constraints.
• Agentic LLMs & Tool Use: experience integrating LLMs with external tools and systems to execute structured, multi‑step tasks with high precision.
• Experience integrating external knowledge sources into LLM/SLM systems, such as databases, document collections, knowledge graphs, or rule‑based systems.
• Demonstrated ability to combine model reasoning, external knowledge, and tools into reliable end‑to‑end systems.

Bonus Skills (Not Required but Valuable)

• Prior experience in an AI research lab, applied research group, or advanced R&D environment.
• Publications, preprints, or open‑source contributions.
• Exposure to responsible AI, model risk, or safety‑related evaluations.
• Domain expertise in a complex or regulated field (healthcare or finance).

What’s in it for you:

At Accenture Ireland, in addition to a competitive base salary, you will also have an extensive benefits package which includes pension, private health insurance, discounted gym membership, emergency caring facilities, and 2 days’ leave per year for charitable work of your choice! Flexible working arrangements can be discussed depending on the position.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by applicable law. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities