The posting
At IBM, work is more than a job. It is a calling: To build. To design. To code. To consult. To think along with clients and sell. To make markets. To invent. To collaborate. Not just to do something better, but to attempt things you have never thought possible. Are you ready to lead in this new era of technology and solve some of the world's most challenging problems? If so, let's talk.
About Business Unit
IBM Cloud is the global public cloud platform from IBM, one of the most secure, scalable, and enterprise-ready cloud platforms in the world. IBM Cloud powers thousands of enterprises with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings delivered across public, private, and hybrid cloud models.
Within IBM Cloud, the Network Underlay organization is responsible for designing, building, and operating the physical and software-defined network infrastructure that underpins IBM Cloud's global fleet of data centers. NetTools is the automation and tooling engineering team within Network Underlay. We build the software systems that allow network engineers to provision, configure, monitor, and manage network infrastructure at scale, across dozens of data centers globally.
The Network Automation mission within NetTools develops and operates three interconnected platforms: NCS/Axon (Network Configuration Service), the system that automates the full lifecycle of network switch configuration from initial rack bring-up to day-to-day operations; SSOT (Source of Truth) and Hivemind, the authoritative data stores for network configuration state in classic and next-generation data center environments respectively; and the associated monitoring, validation, and reporting pipelines that keep our network infrastructure compliant, observable, and reliable.
As a Back-End Software Engineering Intern on the NetTools Network Automation team, you will work alongside the engineers actively building and evolving the Axon/NCS platform and the SSOT/Hivemind systems. This is a hands-on engineering role: you will contribute directly to production-grade back-end services and automation pipelines that are critical to the daily operation of IBM Cloud's network infrastructure.
Your work will include: * Contribute to the Axon/NCS project: participate in the development of back-end Python microservices that implement Day-0 (initial network provisioning, Zero Touch Provisioning) and Day-2 (operational changes, firmware updates, configuration drift remediation) automation workflows. This includes working on REST API endpoints, YAML-driven input processing, and Jinja2-based configuration generation pipelines that produce switch conf+B30igurations deployed across IBM Cloud data centers. * Build and improve automated test coverage: help design and implement unit and integration tests for the Axon/NCS platform. One of the team's active priorities is establishing a regression test framework and test environment; the intern will make direct contributions to closing that gap, including authoring test cases, identifying edge conditions, and validating end-to-end workflow correctness. * Support SSOT and Hivemind integration work: assist in developing or improving the interfaces between NCS/Axon and the SSOT/Hivemind data platforms (backed by NetBox and CockroachDB), ensuring that network context data (rack topology, port mappings, cable connections, device inventory) is reliably consumed and validated by the automation workflows. * Reduce technical debt and improve documentation: contribute to the ongoing NCS Overhaul initiative by helping refactor tightly coupled components, improving Docker container configuration practices, and writing operational runbooks and onboarding documentation that are currently incomplete or missing. * Participate in agile delivery: work within the team's sprint-based development model: track work in Jira, attend standups and sprint ceremonies, contribute to code reviews, and share progress with cross-functional stakeholders across NetTools, Network Engineering, and Data Center Operations.
* Back-end development in Python: hands-on experience writing Python services or scripts, including working with data structures, JSON/YAML processing, and REST API design and consumption (e.g., Flask, FastAPI, or equivalent).
* Version control with Git: ability to work collaboratively in a Git-based workflow, including branching, pull requests, and participation in code reviews.
* Containerization fundamentals: familiarity with Docker, including building images, running containers, and understanding container-based service deployment. NCS runs as containerized workloads and container hygiene is an active operational concern on the team.
* Understanding of REST APIs and HTTP: ability to design, implement, and consume RESTful APIs. The Axon architecture exposes Day-0 and Day-2 network build APIs consumed by multiple service teams across IBM Cloud.
* Automated testing aptitude: experience writing unit or integration tests, or demonstrated understanding of why automated test coverage matters in production-critical infrastructure automation systems.
* Working knowledge with one or more scripting or infrastructure tools: Bash, Ansible, Python automation scripts, or equivalent configuration management tooling. * Familiarity with template engines such as Jinja2, Helm, or similar. Configuration generation in NCS is built on Jinja2 templates rendered from YAML-based rack context inputs. * Exposure to container orchestration or cloud-native platforms: Kubernetes, OpenShift, or Docker Compose. NCS services run on IBM's Fabric Container Platform (FCP/OCP). * Basic understanding of networking concepts: IP addressing (IPv4/IPv6), VLANs, switching, routing fundamentals, or exposure to Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP). Deep networking expertise is not required, but intellectual curiosity about network infrastructure is a strong plus. * Working knowledge with monitoring, observability, or ITSM tools: Grafana, Splunk, Zabbix, JIRA, ServiceNow, GitHub, or Confluence.
