Software Developer Intern 2027 (12 month Placement)

IBM
IBM

Software Engineering

Hursley, UK

Posted on Sep 14, 2026
Introduction

Early Careers Software Engineer | IBM Hursley
Build technology used by businesses around the world

Join IBM Hursley and help build software used by organisations across the globe. As an Early Careers Software Engineer, you'll work on real products, contribute to production code, collaborate with experienced engineers, and gain hands-on experience with modern software engineering practices including AI-assisted development, cloud technologies, automation and DevOps.

The IBM Hursley Laboratory is one of IBM's largest software development centres and is home to many of IBM's flagship software products, including CICS, MQ, App Connect, Cloud Pak for Integration, ACEaaS, WebSphere & Java, Watson Orchestrate and Event Automation.

IBM software helps organisations securely connect applications, move data, automate business processes, and run business-critical workloads across industries including banking, retail, healthcare and government.

These roles are based onsite at IBM Hursley, near Winchester, and require attendance in the office for a minimum of three days per week.

Your role and responsibilities

You'll be part of an agile software development team where everyone plays an active role in planning, designing, building, testing and improving the software we deliver. From the start of your placement, you'll be working on real IBM products used by organisations worldwide. You'll contribute code, participate in technical discussions, help solve customer problems and see your work become part of products used in production environments.

Depending on your team, you may work in areas such as:
* Software development and feature delivery
* DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering
* Testing and quality engineering
* Cloud-native application development
* Web UI development
* Customer support and technical problem solving
* Automation and developer productivity
* Open source projects and tooling

You may also gain experience with cloud-native development, containers, automation, observability, AI-assisted software engineering and modern software delivery practices alongside IBM enterprise platforms.

We value the fresh ideas and perspectives our placement students bring and encourage experimentation, innovation and continuous learning. Throughout your placement, you'll work alongside experienced engineers, architects and technical specialists who will support your development and help you build both technical and professional skills. You'll also have opportunities to participate in hackathons, AI innovation challenges, technical communities and cross-team projects that help you expand your network, develop new skills and make a real impact.

AI and Emerging Technology

AI is transforming how software is built across IBM. Many teams use AI-powered tools to improve productivity, generate code, create tests, analyse defects and accelerate software development.

Some teams are also building AI-powered capabilities directly into IBM products. An interest in Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, machine learning or data-driven software development would be beneficial, although prior experience is not required.

Required education
None
Required technical and professional expertise

You will need to:
* Be on track to achieve a 2:1 degree or above
* Be eligible to undertake a 12-month placement as part of your university degree
* Be authorised to work in the UK for the duration of the placement

Preferred technical and professional experience

We're looking for enthusiastic and motivated students who enjoy technology, solving problems and learning new skills.
You should have:
* Experience with software development through university projects, personal projects, work experience or open source contributions
* Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
* Good coding ability and a desire to develop high-quality software
* Strong written and verbal communication skills
* The ability to work effectively as part of a global team
* Curiosity, initiative and a willingness to learn new technologies
* An interest in modern software engineering practices and emerging technologies

Experience in some of the following areas would be beneficial:
* Java
* Python
* C/C++
* JavaScript or TypeScript
* Operating systems and platform technologies, such as Linux, Windows, z/OS or cloud-based environments
* Git and GitHub
* Containers and cloud-native technologies
* DevOps and automation tools
* Agile software development
* Open source technologies

We do not expect candidates to have experience with all of these technologies. We're looking for people with strong technical foundations, a passion for technology and a willingness to learn.

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Software infuses core business operations with intelligence—from machine learning to generative AI—to help make organizations more responsive, productive, and resilient. IBM Software helps clients put AI into action now to create real value with trust, speed, and confidence across digital labor, IT automation, application modernization, security, and sustainability. Critical to this is the ability to make use of all data, because AI is only as good as the data that fuels it. In most organizations data is spread across multiple clouds, on premises, in private datacenters, and at the edge. IBM’s AI and data platform scales and accelerates the impact of AI with trusted data, and provides leading capabilities to train, tune and deploy AI across business. IBM’s hybrid cloud platform is one of the most comprehensive and consistent approach to development, security, and operations across hybrid environments—a flexible foundation for leveraging data, wherever it resides, to extend AI deep into a business.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM 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, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

For additional information about location requirements, please discuss with the recruiter following submission of your application.

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