IITM Project Associate Supply Chain Recruitment 2026

IITM Project Associate Recruitment 2026: Overview

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is hiring Project Associates for the IITM FedEx SMART Center, a research centre on the Chennai campus that works on smart supply chain and logistics problems with industry partners. The advertisement comes from the Office of Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR), and the work is coordinated by Prof. Arshinder Kaur of the Department of Management Studies.

This is a contract engagement, not a regular institute post — it runs for an initial spell of six months and can be extended if your work is good. Fresh Master's graduates are welcome here: the notice says relevant experience is preferred but not compulsory, so strong academic or project work in supply chain, analytics or optimisation can carry your application.

Service Conditions and Caveats

• Contract basis: The position is purely contractual. Finishing the contract gives you no claim to an extension, regularisation or a permanent post at the institute.
• Tenure: Six months to begin with, extendable later based on how you perform.
• Citizenship: You must be an Indian citizen. People who migrated from Pakistan to settle permanently in India and subjects of Nepal can also apply, but they need an eligibility certificate from the Ministry of Home Affairs before appointment.
• Serving project staff: If you already work on a project at IIT Madras, apply through proper channel or bring a No Objection Certificate to the test or interview. Without the NOC you will not be allowed to appear.
• Relaxation: The institute can relax the minimum qualification and experience for exceptionally outstanding candidates, and can relax the experience bar for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates when enough experienced candidates from those communities are not available.
• Shortlisting: IIT Madras can restrict the number of people called for the test or interview using qualifications, relevance of experience and academic record, and can reject any or all applications without giving reasons. Only shortlisted candidates are contacted, and the institute may also decide not to fill the position at all.
• Eligibility cut-off: Everything is judged as on the closing date for the online application, and only experience earned after your minimum qualifying degree counts.
• Women candidates: IIT Madras says it wants a gender-balanced workforce and encourages women to apply.

Application Submission Notes

Applications go through the IC&SR careers portal only. Register with an active email address, then pick Advt.198/2026 from the list of openings — all correspondence from the institute comes by email, so use an address you actually check.

One registered login can send only one application per advertisement. If you want more than one position from the same advertisement, tick all of them before you submit, because the form cannot be edited or taken back once submitted. Sending two applications for the same post can get your candidature rejected.

After submitting, take a printout of the form and carry it to the test, interview or document verification. Do not post the hard copy to the institute. For technical trouble with the form only, write to icsrrecruitment@icsrpis.iitm.ac.in or icsrrecruitment6@icsrpis.iitm.ac.in, or call 044-2257 8843 between 9.00 am and 5.30 pm on working days from Monday to Friday. You can also send testimonials from referees who know your work well; if you are employed, send one from your most recent employer or immediate superior.

Any corrigendum to this advertisement goes up on the IC&SR website — the institute will not send a separate message about it, so check the portal before the closing date.

• Conduct research and analysis on supply chain and logistics problems taken up by the centre
• Collect project data and run modelling and optimisation work on it
• Build analytical models and research-based solutions for the project
• Review published literature and record research findings clearly
• Prepare technical reports and project deliverables
• Work closely with faculty, researchers and industry stakeholders of the centre
• Support project implementation, experimentation and validation