Performance Engineering Intern – Poughkeepsie

Monmouth University; City of Poughkeepsie (NY); On-site; USD 28,000 - 41,000; Part time

Job summary

IBM in Poughkeepsie seeks a Performance Engineering Intern to help analyze enterprise workloads, build performance models, and develop tests and automation across the full IBM Z stack. You will collaborate with architects, hardware designers, and software engineers to drive performance improvements on world‑class enterprise systems.

The role provides hands-on experience with performance tracing, workload characterization, and AI-assisted analysis, applying classroom concepts to real-world IBM Z

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Fundamental understanding of computer architecture, operating systems, software development, or digital systems.
• Programming experience in C, C++, Python, Java, or Assembly.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication and teamwork skills.

Responsibilities

• Analyze real-world enterprise workloads at scale to understand system behavior and uncover performance opportunities.
• Build and use models to evaluate processor and system performance.
• Develop performance tests, benchmarks, tools, and automation.
• Support computer architecture, performance tracing, modeling, and workload characterization.
• Explore AI and Generative AI to improve performance analysis and engineering productivity.
• Collaborate with architects, hardware designers, software developers, and performance engineers.

Skills

Programming languages

Analytical thinking

Communication

Teamwork

Education

High School Diploma/GED

Bachelor’s/Master’s in CS/CE/EE

Job description

Performance Engineering Intern – Poughkeepsie

At IBM, work is more than a job – it’s a calling: To build. To design. To code. To consult. To think along with clients and sell. To make markets. To invent. To collaborate. Not just to do something better, but to attempt things you’ve never thought possible. Are you ready to lead in this new era of technology and solve some of the world’s most challenging problems? If so, lets talk.

Your role and responsibilities

• The IBM Z Performance and Architecture organization helps design and optimize the technologies behind IBM Z, IBM’s flagship enterprise computing platform. IBM Z powers some of the world’s most demanding business applications, processing massive volumes of transactions while delivering high levels of reliability, security, and performance.
• What makes IBM Z unique is that IBM engineers the entire system stack, including processor architecture, hardware, firmware, operating systems, virtualization technologies, middleware, applications, and performance tooling. This end-to-end ownership allows our teams to solve complex problems across the full computing stack and deliver highly integrated solutions for mission-critical enterprise workloads.
• Our work spans computer architecture, operating systems, performance engineering, data analytics, automation, workload analysis, and applied AI.
• As an intern, you may work on projects involving:
• Analyzing real-world enterprise workloads at scale to understand system behavior and uncover performance opportunities using processor, memory, I/O, operating system, and application-level performance data
• Building and using models to evaluate processor and system performance
• Developing performance tests, benchmarks, tools, and automation
• Supporting computer architecture, performance tracing, modeling, and workload characterization
• Exploring AI and Generative AI to improve performance analysis and engineering productivity
• Collaborating with architects, hardware designers, software developers, and performance engineers
• This role provides an opportunity to apply classroom concepts to real-world enterprise systems and contribute to the development and performance of future IBM Z technologies.

Required education

• High School Diploma/GED

Preferred education

• Bachelor’s Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field
• Fundamental understanding of computer architecture, operating systems, software development, or digital systems
• Programming experience in one or more languages such as C, C++, Python, Java, or Assembly
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong communication and teamwork skills

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Computer Architecture and Processor Design
• Operating Systems and Systems Programming
• System Performance Engineering, Analysis, or Optimization
• Processor, Memory, and I/O Architecture
• Performance Modeling, Benchmarking, or Workload Analysis
• Probability and Statistics or Operations Research
• C/C++, Python, Assembly, or SystemVerilog
• Linux/Unix or RISC-V
• Multi-Core Systems or Digital Logic Design