AI Applied Researcher

Job Description:

Join the Accenture Labs’ AI R&D Team and work on core AI Models / technology that work across multiple domains.

The Opportunity

As an Applied Scientist, you will sit at the intersection of advanced AI research and real-world business impact. You will translate state-of-the-art machine learning and AI techniques into practical, scalable solutions that solve complex problems across real datasets, products, and client environments.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys moving beyond pure research to own the end-to-end lifecycle of AI solutions—from problem formulation and experimentation to validation, deployment, and measurable outcomes.

Key Responsibilities & Impact

This role offers a unique mix of deep research and hands-on development:

Research Synthesis: Review, analyze, and strategically summarize the latest academic and industry research in technical domains (e.g., LLM domain adaptation, knowledge integration, reasoning techniques).

Adapt foundation and compact language models to specialized domains using techniques such as fine-tuning, continued pre-training, distillation, and parameter-efficient methods (e.g. LoRA).

Design and implement agentic LLM systems that integrate external tools (APIs, databases, services, rule engines) to perform precision and verifiable tasks.

Hands-on Prototype Development: Collaborate directly with Senior Research Scientists to rapidly design, build, and test Proof-of-Concepts.

Research Dissemination: Articulate complex research findings into clear, persuasive, and publishable papers and presentations for both academic and business audiences.

Strategic Storytelling: Craft engaging narratives and technical demonstrations that translate research outcomes into clear, compelling value propositions.

Job Qualifications:

Master’s plus 2-3 years industry experience or PhD in Computer Science / AI (Area of Study: AI / ML / NLP) with 1-2 years industry experience.

Strong foundation in machine learning, including supervised learning, embeddings, evaluation metrics, and data preprocessing.

Strong analytical and critical thinking skills.

Good written and verbal communication abilities, with the capacity to structure presentations for maximum clarity and impact.

Experimental design expertise, including the ability to design controlled experiments, define meaningful baselines, and interpret results using appropriate quantitative metrics.

Ability to collaborate effectively with researchers, engineers, and product stakeholders in cross-functional environments.

Ability to track, evaluate, and apply relevant research literature.

Strong programming skills in Python, including experience with libraries such as PyTorch (preferred), TensorFlow.

Primary Skills:

Ability to implement custom models (neural networks, transformers), layers, or loss functions.

Small Language Models (SLMs): hands-on experience building, adapting, and evaluating compact language models; understanding of domain adaptation techniques, efficiency trade-offs, and deployment constraints.

Agentic LLMs & Tool Use: experience integrating LLMs with external tools and systems to execute structured, multi-step tasks with high precision.

Experience integrating external knowledge sources into LLM/SLM systems, such as databases, document collections, knowledge graphs, or rule-based systems.

Demonstrated ability to combine model reasoning, external knowledge, and tools into reliable end-to-end systems.

Bonus Skills (Not Required But Valuable)

Prior experience in an AI research lab, applied research group, or advanced R&D environment.

Publications, preprints, or open-source contributions.

Exposure to responsible AI, model risk, or safety-related evaluations.

Domain expertise in a complex or regulated field (healthcare or finance).

Does this appeal to you? If so, we wish to hear from you.

Please advise if you have any particular requirements, so we can look into arranging reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process. You can contact us at [email protected]

What’s in it for you:

At Accenture Ireland, in addition to a competitive base salary, you will also have an extensive benefits package which includes pension, private health insurance, discounted gym membership, emergency caring facilities, and 2 days’ leave per year for charitable work of your choice! Flexible working arrangements can be discussed depending on the position.