Internship

We are seeking a highly motivated research intern to join the Docling team for a ~4-month paid internship, with flexible timing in 2026 based on the candidate's availability. The successful candidate will be at the end of their Master's or PhD studies and bring strong programming expertise in Python, along with a solid foundation in machine learning. A specialization in computer vision is highly desirable, as our work integrates state-of-the-art AI techniques for understanding and processing visual and textual content in complex documents. This role offers the opportunity to work alongside leading researchers and engineers on cutting-edge projects that bridge academic innovation with real-world applications.

Role & Responsibilities

• Contribute to the full stack of document AI research and development, including model training, evaluation, optimization, and large-scale deployment.
• Develop and experiment with vision-language models for tasks such as document layout analysis, OCR, information extraction, and multimodal understanding.
• Design and implement novel algorithms that combine visual, textual, and structural signals for robust document understanding.
• Work with large-scale datasets and training pipelines, leveraging modern deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch).
• Collaborate closely with researchers and engineers to translate research into production, contributing to open-source projects and enterprise applications.
• Analyze experimental results, run ablations, and iterate methods to push the state of the art in document intelligence.
• Gain exposure to research-to-product pipelines and the broader enterprise AI ecosystem.
• Outstanding performance during the internship may lead to future employment opportunities within the Docling team.
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in or have recently completed a PhD or Master's with research experience in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• Strong foundation in machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, or multimodal learning.
• Proficiency in Python and with modern deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch) and libraries such as Hugging Face Transformers / Datasets.
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal), ability to present and write clearly.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Publications in relevant domains (CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICLR).
• Experience with document-centric tasks: OCR, layout modeling, table understanding, DocQA.
• Familiarity with large-scale training, distributed computing, or model optimization (e.g. memory, speed).
• Experience working with pre-trained models, fine-tuning, multimodal models or architectures (vision + language).
  

Diversity

IBM is committed to diversity at the workplace. With us you will find an open, multicultural environment. Excellent flexible working arrangements enable all genders to strike the desired balance between their professional development and their personal lives.

How to apply

Please submit your CV including contact information for two or three references. We encourage candidates to also share a 3-minute video, in which they introduce themselves, as well as highlight their motivation and expertise. The video is not mandatory.