[1] In 1964, he joined IBM, where he worked at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center on high performance computer architectures and also on operating system design methodology.
In May 1969, he became a professor of computing science at the then named University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked since then in the area of software fault tolerance and dependability.
[5] Brian Randell's main research interests are in the field of computer science, specifically on system dependability and fault tolerance.
Randell was researching the history of computer science in Britain for a conference on the history of computing held at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico on 10–15 June 1976, and got permission to present a paper on wartime development of the COLOSSI at the Post Office Research Station, Dollis Hill (in October 1975 the British Government released a series of captioned photographs from the Public Record Office).
Starting in the 1970s, Randell "set up the project that initiated research into the possibility of software fault tolerance, and introduced the recovery block concept.
"[13] Randell has for many years been one of the leading members of the team of volunteers responsible for GENUKI, the web portal for Genealogy in the United Kingdom and Ireland.