IBM Pre-doctoral Researcher

International Business Machines Corporation; Dublin; On-site; EUR 38,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully funded PhD program

PhD stipend >€40,000 per year

Job summary

IBM Research in Ireland collaborates with Trinity College Dublin to offer a fully funded 4-year PhD position at the intersection of AI and security. You will work on threat modelling, red/blue-team exercises, and prototype secure AI systems while producing publishable research.

Join a team of world-leading researchers and benefit from a generous PhD stipend above €40,000 per year with program fees funded. This is a unique opportunity in Ireland.

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in computer science, applied mathematics, engineering or similar.
• Basics of ML and AI: knowledge of ML fundamentals.
• Programming skills: Python, version control, ability to write complex code from scratch and extend existing code.
• Interest in performing research and evaluating literature.
• Ability to move quickly from idea to software prototype.
• Excellent spoken and written English.

Responsibilities

• This is a fully funded 4-year PhD position at the intersection of AI and security.
• Collaborate with IBM Research Europe and Trinity College Dublin on threat modelling and blue team defence.
• Publish research papers and contribute to defence techniques.

Skills

Excellent spoken and written English

Python programming

Software prototyping

Research ideation

Education

Master's Degree in CS / related field

Tools

Pandas

PyTorch

Git

Job description

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'l 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.

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'l 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.

AI systems with embedded large language models (LLMs), like AI Agents, demonstrate significant potential for solving complex tasks by dynamically adapting to feedback and refining their strategies. However, ensuring responsible, safe, and secure deployment is crucial, as these systems face privacy and security risks from malicious actors - be it leakage of confidential information, or injections for adversarial behaviour. This project will focus on systematically analysing threat models, attack surfaces, and exploitation techniques (red-teaming) to identify critical risks in industrial contexts and develop effective defences (blue-teaming). This is key to building trustworthy systems for the future.

Your Role And Responsibilities

This is a fully funded 4-year PhD position at the intersection of AI and Security as part of a new initiative between IBM Research Europe and Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

Benefits

• Access to resources and expertise at IBM Research and TCD


• A substantial PhD salary (>40,000 euro per annum)


• TCD PhD program fees (EU or non-EU level) fully funded

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

• A degree in computer science, applied mathematics, engineering or similar.


• Basics of Machine Learning and AI: knowledge of ML fundamentals.


• Programming skills: Python, version control, ability to write complex code from scratch and extend existing code.


• Interest in performing research - including evaluation of existing literature, ideation, authoring research publications.


• Ability to move quickly from idea to software prototype for evaluation and demonstration.


• Excellent spoken and written English

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Knowledge of GenAI approaches: model architectures, fine-tuning, transfer learning.


• Advanced programming skills: Python, data preprocessing (pandas), experience with AI/ML libraries such as Pytorch is beneficial.


• Previously published academic papers.