AI Research Engineer

Hitachi Energy Ltd.; Kraków; Hybrid; PLN 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and incentives

Well-being and care

Paid and unpaid leave

Flexible work options

Benefits that support financial securi

Job summary

Hitachi Energy Ltd. is seeking an AI Research Engineer in the Technology Validation team within the DAAI organization to translate emerging AI research into practical validation questions and prototypes.

You will run benchmarks across LLMs, RAG, agentic AI, fine-tuning and responsible-AI evaluation, interpreting results and guiding next steps. You will collaborate with research, engineering and business teams to share learnings and reuse assets.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in applied AI research, AI engineering or ML research.
• Strong programming skills (Python) with hands-on AI experimentation and evaluation.
• Familiarity with LLMs, RAG, agentic AI and responsible-AI evaluation.
• Ability to translate research claims into practical enterprise experiments.
• Clear communication of complex topics across research, engineering and business teams.

Responsibilities

• Monitor AI research, benchmarks and model docs; identify developments for testing.
• Translate insights into validation questions and designs with explicit baselines and success criteria.
• Run research-led prototypes, benchmarks across LLMs, RAG, agentic AI and tuning.
• Interpret results with rigor and report limitations; recommend next steps.
• Share methods and learnings with Hitachi Group colleagues and external communities.
• Preserve reusable methods, benchmarks and test assets.

Skills

Python programming

Applied AI research

Benchmarking & evaluation

Critical reading of research

Effective communication

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in AI/CS

MSc/PhD in AI/ML/CS (advantage)

Tools

Azure

GCP

AWS

Job description

Bring research discipline to practical technology validation, so that Hitachi Energy can distinguish credible AI advances from hype before it invests. As AI Research Engineer in the Technology Validation team, part of Hitachi Energy's Data, Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (DAAI) organization, you interpret emerging AI research, methods, models and evaluation approaches, turn the most relevant developments into practical validation questions and answer them through prototypes, benchmarks and comparisons. Your evidence informs architecture, platform and delivery teams. The team builds to learn and demonstrate, not to operate production systems.

How you will make an impact

• Monitor and interpret AI research, publications, benchmarks and model documentation. Identify developments that merit practical testing.
• Translate research insight into concrete validation questions and fair experimental designs, with explicit baselines, success criteria and the conditions that would invalidate the hypothesis, together with the AI Experimentation Engineer and AI Opportunity Lead.
• Run research-led prototypes, benchmarks and comparisons across LLMs, RAG, agentic AI, fine-tuning and responsible-AI evaluation.
• Interpret results with methodological rigor and state the limitations clearly. Recommend a proportionate next step: stop, keep watching, test further or hand over to the team that should build it.
• Exchange methods and learnings with Hitachi Group colleagues, DAAI peers, vendors and external research communities.
• Preserve reusable methods, benchmarks and test assets so that work is not repeated.

Your background

• A genuine passion for AI: you try new tools and models on your own initiative and can show a recent example of something you built or tried.
• 3+ years of experience in applied AI research, AI engineering or ML research, in a company, consultancy or research institution.
• Strong programming skills (Python preferred) with hands-on AI/ML experimentation, benchmarking and evaluation. You know LLMs, generative AI, fine-tuning, RAG, agentic AI and responsible-AI evaluation. Familiarity with cloud AI platforms (Azure preferred, GCP or AWS) is an advantage.
• Ability to read research and technical claims critically and translate them into practical, enterprise-relevant experiments.
• Clear communication of research-level topics and their limitations. You have experience collaborating across research, engineering and business communities.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience and fluent English. An MSc or PhD in AI, machine learning or computer science is an advantage when combined with practical work.

The final offer will be based on candidate location, skills and qualifications, experience, and aligned with internal pay structures.

This role may be open in multiple locations. If the salary information listed is not applicable for your current home location, salary details relevant to your location will be discussed with you at a later stage.

Our benefit offering is tailored based on your country of employment and generally includes:

• Competitive salary and incentives
• Well-being and care
• Paid and unpaid leave
• Flexible work options
• Benefits that support your financial security

You will receive more specific information during the recruitment process.

We are a global leader in electrification, powering the electricity era to meet the energy demands of today, and the next 25 years. As the energy arm of Hitachi Group, over three billion people depend on our pioneering, mission-critical technologies to power their daily lives.

With over a century of innovation, we are addressing the most urgent energy challenge of our time: driving the evolution of the world’s energy system to ensure abundant, secure, affordable, and sustainable power for today’s generation and the next.

With an unparalleled installed base in over 140 countries, we are the grid ecosystem partner across the utility, industry, data center, and transportation sectors. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ over 56,000 people in 60 countries and generate revenues of around $20 billion USD.