AI Engineer - Cobol

Introduction
The core WatsonX team is looking for engineers who show the initiative and thrive at tackling problems. The AI landscape as a whole is rapid paced and comes with ever developing requirements which you as an engineer would be required to help design and engineer solutions that innovate within that environment. This will include understanding AI principals with data manipulation and transformation prompt engineering and model validations as we look to build up high quality solutions. You will be applying the software engineering rigour ensuring proper processes and best practises are followed accordingly.
Your main duties will include architecting and implementing new POC’s optimising and maintaining existing code and ensuring the software meets high-quality standards through testing and debugging.
You will work on state-of-the-art technology Code Assistant that leverages the IBM Generative AI capability to help our customer modernize their Mainframe landscape by assisting them to analyse Refactor Transform and validate the application.

Your Role and Responsibilities
An AI Engineer at IBM is not just a job title – it’s a mindset. You’ll leverage the WCA4Z – IBM watsonx™ Code Assistant for Z -assisted product built to accelerate mainframe application modernization at lower cost and with less risk than today’s alternatives. This product provides an end-to-end application developer lifecycle that includes application discovery and analysis automated code refactoring and COBOL to Java conversion. Developers can automatically refactor selected elements of an application and continue modernizing in COBOL or selectively transform code to Java leveraging generative AI using a highly tuned state-of-the-art large language model.
As AI Engineer you will be responsible for architecting and delivering AI solutions using cutting-edge technologies with a strong focus on foundation models and large language models. You will work closely with customers product managers and development teams to understand business requirements and design custom AI solutions that address complex challenges.

Day-to-Day Duties:

• Proof of Concept (POC) Development: Develop POCs to validate and showcase the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed AI solutions. Collaborate with development teams to implement and iterate on POCs ensuring alignment with customer requirements and expectations.
• Help in showcasing the ability of IBM watsonx code assistant for Z to refactor/rewrite and document code from one language to another particularly COBOL to JAVA through rapid prototypes/POC.
• Documentation and knowledge sharing: Document solution architectures design decisions implementation details and lessons learned. Create technical documentation white papers and best practice guides. Contribute to internal knowledge sharing initiatives and mentor new team members.
• Industry trends and innovation: stay up to date with the latest trends and advancements in AI foundation models and large language models.
• Evaluate emerging technologies tools and frameworks to assess their potential impact on solution design and implementation.

Required Technical and Professional Expertise

• Education: Bachelor’s Master’s or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science Artificial Intelligence or a related field.
• Experience: Experience in designing and delivering AI solutions with a focus on foundation models large language models or similar technologies. Experience in natural language processing (NLP) and text analytics is highly desirable.
• Technical Skills: 5+ years of good hands-on experience in COBOL programming JCL VSAM CICS DB2 Concepts
• Strong programming skills with proficiency in Python and experience with AI frameworks like Tensor flow Pytorch Hugging face. Understanding in the usage of libraries such as Sci Kit Learn Pandas Matplotlib etc.
• Strong communication skills including the ability to explain advanced technical concepts ideas and solutions to both technical and non-technical collaborators.
• Knowledge on using Cloud platforms Azure/AWS/GCP
• Business Acumen: Ability to understand customer needs and business objectives. Experience in working closely with customers and translating their requirements into effective AI solutions.
• Soft Skills: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Engage with stakeholders for analysis and implementation. Commitment to continuous learning and staying updated with advancements in the field of AI.
• Growth mindset: Demonstrate a growth mindset to understand clients’ business processes and challenges

Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise

• Proficient in spoken & reading Japanese/Spanish/German/French/Chinese language.
• Experience in full AI project lifecycle from research and prototyping to deployment in production environments.
• Familiarity with Agile development methodologies