Associate Data Scientist 2027 - AI & Data Analytics

**Introduction** Come forge the future like an IBMer. Ready to think boldly, work with some of the world's most recognized brands, and kick-start your career? Welcome to IBM's Associate Program for university hires. From day one, you will collaborate with global clients and IBM teams on projects that help organizations solve tough challenges across digital transformation, cloud strategy, AI adoption, process redesign, analytics, generative AI, and agentic AI-enabled transformation. As an Associate, you will work alongside a global cohort of diverse, ambitious peers and have access to industry-recognized certifications, digital badges, and a minimum of 40 hours of structured learning per year on IBM's AI-driven learning platform, supported by coaches, mentors, and professional communities across practices. IBM's culture of internal mobility means you can explore new technologies, industries, and career paths as your interests evolve. Bring your curiosity. Grow your skills. Build what's next - like an IBMer. This role is a strong fit for analytical problem solvers who want to use data science, machine learning, and GenAI/ Agentic AI-enabled workflows responsibly to uncover patterns, evaluate intelligent systems, and help clients make better decisions. To give yourself the best opportunity for success, we advise applying only to roles that align with your skills and experience, rather than applying broadly across all entry-level positions. You'll receive a status update email for each application, so be sure to check your IBM Careers account regularly — it's the best way to get a centralized view of which roles you have active applications against. **Your role and responsibilities** As an Associate Data Scientist, you will help solve business problems using statistics, machine learning, and data science techniques while contributing to generative AI and agentic AI workflows, along with open-source tools such as Python, R, and TensorFlow, IBM tools, and AI application suites. You will prepare, analyze, and understand data to deliver insight, predict emerging trends, evaluate model and workflow performance, and provide recommendations to stakeholders. Collaborating closely with diverse teams, you will help select appropriate modeling approaches, identify the critical data needed for analysis, and translate complex model results into clear recommendations for technical and non-technical audiences. In your role, you may be responsible for: * Prepare, cleanse, join, and analyze structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data for analytics, machine learning, GenAI, and agentic AI workflows. * Implement and validate predictive, prescriptive, statistical, and machine learning models with a focus on measurable client and business outcomes. * Design experiments, features, prompts, evaluation datasets, metrics, and tests to assess model outputs, workflow accuracy, reliability, bias, and business value. * Build GenAI, RAG, and agentic AI workflows by evaluating retrieval quality, grounding, generated responses, tool-use outcomes, and end-to-end agent performance. * Work in an Agile, collaborative environment with data scientists, data engineers, AI engineers, consultants, architects, and database administrators to bring analytical rigor and responsible AI practices to client challenges. * Communicate with internal and external clients to understand business needs, select appropriate modeling techniques, and explain assumptions, limitations, and recommendations. * Evaluate modeling results and present insights clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, translating findings into practical actions. These positions are anticipated to start in 2027. We have positions open in these locations: Chicago **Required technical and professional expertise** * Strong fundamentals in mathematics, statistics, computer science, algorithms, and analytical reasoning. * Familiarity with programming language such as Python, SQL, R, or similar. * Foundational understanding of predictive modeling, prescriptive modeling, statistical methods, machine learning, GenAI and Agentic AI. * Basic understanding of cloud environments, data platforms, or AI platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or similar. * Strong technical and analytical abilities, problem solving, debugging, troubleshooting, teamwork, and communication skills. * Willingness to travel up to 100%, based on project requirements. **Preferred technical and professional experience** * Bachelor's degree in a related field such as Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, MIS, Engineering, AI/ML, or another quantitative field. * Coursework, projects, internship experience, or portfolio work involving data science, machine learning, analytics, GenAI and Agentic AI. * Familiarity with LLMs, embeddings, vector databases, retrieval systems, prompt workflows, RAG, model behavior evaluation, and AI agent workflow patterns. * Exposure to orchestration and agentic AI frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, MCP-based tooling, or similar tools. * Understanding of Git, containers, APIs, testing frameworks, CI/CD, MLOps, LLMOps, observability, model monitoring, data governance, privacy, security, or responsible AI practices. IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and 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, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.