IBM Engineering - Software & QA Department Salaries in India (Updated 2025)

Likes

Salary is decent in India Software Labs, equivalent of Tier 2 PBCs. RSUs are also given to employees who perform well. IBM has turned its tech suite around after the RedHat acquisition, even for z/mainframe products. Newer tech stack is being implemented at breakneck pace, enough to overwhelm senior developers as well. Lots of opportunities to learn new stuff, including agentic AI. Job security is better than other PBCs for employees who perform well, but expect PIPs.

Dislikes

You will get stuck in one job band for a very long time. Promotions from 7B to 8 are very hard in particular. Also, IBM India is the only entity among all IBM entities to have A and B subbands till job level 7 (tech lead), effectively prohibiting your growth to a decision-making position for a longer time. Indian management, especially managers who have moved laterally from IBM Consulting, is extremely orthodox, and technically inept. If your product delivery is controlled by an onshore lab (U.S., U.K., Germany, etc), expect the Indian management to have no understanding of what it is that you are doing on a day-to-day basis, and to be at loggerheads with the onshore managers. You, an ordinary employee, will no doubt be caught in the crossfire.

Likes

good salary, good learning platform like udemy business and some internal portals

Dislikes

Micromanagement, some managers and senior architects are working since so long 15-20 years and they don't want any fresh and skilled person to stay they are in there comfort zone, worst reality is when i resigned no hr has connected with me even after raising a ticket manager has all the power.

Likes

...trictly enforced. No fixed hours to spend in office, that depends between teams. promotions and pay cycles depends on your importance and how good the team is doing in the organisation. managers are helpful and respectful towards employees in general. one have scope and opportunity to grow skills, contribute to open source, blogs, disclosures.

Dislikes

Internal movement between teams is almost always a fight. Often people are made to work in mixed bag of tasks/technologies, that might make one a jack of all trades and makes specialisation in one/some skillset go away.

Likes

...king with, generally a nice company with very convenient workspace and culture . No strict timings ,Salary is Good 👍🏻

Dislikes

Medical insurance and other benefits are average. No cab facility for us . Most of team members reporting that they have less work life balance and additional working hours.

Likes

Work life balance is superb. Also you apprised what you did all the time.

Dislikes

Promotion process is not good. If you are on higher package in your band limit then don't think about the promotion for 3-4 years.