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IBM Technical Hierarchy: Job levels at IBM

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IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) is a global technology company which has produced products that have revolutionized several industries like Hardware, Software, Cloud Computing, AI, Blockchain and IT services. With nearly 300K employees worldwide, IBM is one of the top career choices.

In this article at OpenGenus, we have listed the different job levels and grades at IBM (IBM Hierarchy/ technical ladder) along with average salary range at USA and India offices and average experience. Based on this information, plan your career at IBM.

Table of contents:

  1. Career opportunity at IBM
  2. Job Levels at IBM
  3. Career of some employees at IBM

Key Takeaways

  • There are over 298,000 employees at IBM with 14 job levels worldwide.
  • IBM follows a Band job structure hierarchy.

The details on Technical Ladder at IBM in this OpenGenus.org article has been verified by multiple IBM employees independently.

Compare the technical hierarchy at IBM with Job levels of other service-based companies like Wipro, Infosys and Accenture.

Career opportunity at IBM

IBM has over 298,000 employees which makes it one of the largest workforces from a product based company.

Market capitalisation of IBM is USD 129.39 Billion. It was founded in 16 June 1911 in New York city, USA. IBM has many subsidiaries like Red Hat, IBM Consulting, IBM Research and many more.

IBM has several products such as:

  • IBM Cloud: providing cloud services
  • IBM Watson: AI platform for NLP, Data Analytics services
  • IBM Security, Analytics, Db2 (database), Blockchain and many more.

In addition to its technology products, IBM provides consultancy services.

IBM was the dominant technology company in 1990s but over the years, several other companies rose yet IBM have stood the test of time and remains a strong technology company today.

For innovation, IBM is a perfect company to work for. Several IBM employees rank in the list of people holding maximum number of patents.

IBM provide oversea opportunities to several of its employees to work from foreign countries for 2 to 3 years in L1 visa and some are sent on H1B visa as well.

For entry-level positions, the salary provided by IBM is relatively low and is in the category of Service based companies like Infosys and Accenture which makes it a plan B for freshers.

Job Levels at IBM

IBM follows the Band organization (org) structure for its organization/ technical ladder. Most employees start at Band 6E but few are assigned at level Band TE.

At Band TE, the employee is mostly involved in training and work on minimal tasks that fall in the internship category. This level lasts for 1 year at maximum.

Following are the 14 different Job Levels at IBM:

Job Levels at IBM
Job Level Designation Annual Salary (USA, INDIA) Experience Range
Band TE Internship ($20,000 - $40,000+ USA)
₹2 - 3 lakhs (INDIA)
University students
Fresh Graduates
Band 6G Entry Level Associates/Trainees ($40,000 - $70,000+ USA)
₹3 - 7 lakhs (INDIA)
0 to 1 year
BSc students join at this level.
Band 6A Associate System Engineer (ASE) ($55,000 - $80,000 USA)
₹4 - 8 lakhs (INDIA)
2 to 4 years
MSc students join at this level.
Band 6B Senior Associate System Engineer (SASE)
System Manager, Senior System Manager
($80,000 - $150,000+ USA)
₹6 - 12 lakhs (INDIA)
4 to 6 years
MBA and PhD students join at this level.
Band 7A Staff Engineer
Tech Lead
($130,000 - $250,000+ USA)
₹10 to 20 lakhs (INDIA)
Minimum 7 years (IBM insider)
5 years (joining from other companies)
Band 7B Senior Staff Engineer
Project Lead
IT Architect
($180,000 - $300,000+ USA)
₹16 to 26 lakhs (INDIA)
10 to 14 years
Band 8 Advisory Engineer
Senior IT Architect
Delivery Manager
($250,000 to $350K USA)
₹25 to 30 lakhs (INDIA)
15+ years
Band 9 Senior Engineer
Executive IT Architect
Project Manager
($250,000 - $300,000+ USA)
₹25 to 40 lakhs (INDIA)
15 to 20 years
Band 10 Senior Technical Staff Member ($250,000 - $400,000+ USA)
₹25 to 40 lakhs (INDIA)
20 to 25 years
Executive Band D Dintinguished Engineer
Directors
$400K+ (USA)
₹50 lakhs (India)
25+ years
Executive Band F Fellow
Regional Head
CTO Office member
$500K+ (USA)
₹60 lakhs (India)
25+ years
Executive Band C Country Head $700K+ (USA)
₹1.2+ crores (India)
25+ years
Executive Band B President, Vice Presidents $800K+ (USA) 25+ years
Executive Band A C-suites: CEO $1M+ (USA) 25+ years

Career of some employees at IBM

Following are some of the employees at IBM:

  • Sarbajit Kumar Rakshit is a Cybersecurity architect (Job level Band 9) and Master Inventor at IBM. He has a total work experience of 26 years and have been working at IBM since 2007. He is a Prolific Inventor from India holding the record of the 2nd Highest Number of Patents ever issued to an Indian.
  • Sandeep Ramesh Patil is IBM Storage CTO Office member at IBM (Job level Executive Band F). He has been working at IBM since January 2000. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Computing from University of Pune in 1999. He holds the record of 8th most patents issued to a person of Indian Origin.
  • Ramachandra Divakaruni is a Project Manager at IBM (Job level Band 9). He completed his B. Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from IIT, Madras. He holds the record of 9th most patents issued to a person of Indian Origin.
  • Ravi Arimilli is a Prolific Inventor of Indian origin and Fellow and Chief Architect at IBM. He moved to USA with his family in 1969 and was originally from Andhra Pradesh, India. He holds the record of the 4th highest number of patents issued to a person of Indian origin.

With this article at OpenGenus, you must have a strong idea of the organization structure at IBM. Plan your career at IBM accordingly.

Geoffrey Ziskovin

Geoffrey Ziskovin

Geoffrey Ziskovin is an American Software Developer and Author with an experience of over 30 years. He started his career with Haskell and has interviewed over 700 candidates for Fortune 500 companies

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IBM Technical Hierarchy: Job levels at IBM
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