---
title: 'Associate, Strategic Projects at Institute of Foundation Models'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/associate-strategic-projects-institute-of-foundation-models-abu-dhabi-cd5qn6fnzyjk'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-19'
---

# Associate, Strategic Projects at Institute of Foundation Models

- **Company:** Institute of Foundation Models
- **Location:** Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-25
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/ifm-us/bf561d57-9238-46e8-908e-459f15a2b9b8

## Job description

## About the Institute of Foundation Models

We are a dedicated research lab for building, understanding, using, and risk-managing foundation models. Our mandate is to advance research, nurture the next generation of AI builders, and drive transformative contributions to a knowledge-driven economy.

As part of our team, you'll work at the intersection of frontier AI research and real-world impact, alongside world-class researchers, engineers, and business leaders. You will help shape how groundbreaking AI models are positioned, partnered, and deployed across industries, contributing to establishing MBZUAI as a global hub for foundation model development and adoption.

## The Role

As an Associate on the Strategic Projects team, you will help turn IFM's frontier AI models into real-world impact. You will work on the institute's highest-priority initiatives, including strategy, commercial and go-to-market, partnerships, and operational programs. You will move fluidly between analysis, execution, and stakeholder engagement. The role suits a versatile, hands-on profile who blends strategy, business, technology, and operations skills, and who takes full ownership from problem definition to delivery.

## Key Responsibilities

- Drive end-to-end execution of strategic initiatives, from scoping and planning through delivery, tracking milestones, and unblocking issues across teams.
- Conduct in-depth analysis to inform leadership decisions, including market and competitive landscapes, business cases, financial models, and partner or deal evaluations.
- Support go-to-market and commercial efforts for IFM's foundation models, including positioning, pricing inputs, launch planning, and adoption strategies.
- Help identify, structure, and manage strategic partnerships with industry, government, and academic stakeholders.
- Produce crisp, executive-ready documents and presentations, such as strategy papers, board and leadership briefings, and partner materials.
- Collaborate closely with research, engineering, product, legal, and finance teams to translate technical capabilities into clear value propositions and actionable plans.
- Design and improve internal processes, operating models, and governance for strategic programs.
- Stay on top of developments in the AI ecosystem, including models, players, policy, and infrastructure, and turn them into insights for IFM's strategy.
- Perform all other duties as reasonably directed by the line manager commensurate with these functional objectives.

Academic Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Law, or a related field required.
- Master's degree (e.g., MBA, MSc) or equivalent experience preferred.

Professional Experience - Required

- 3–5 years of experience in strategy consulting, corporate strategy, investment banking, strategic projects, or a similar role.
- Experience in the AI, technology, or TMT sector (exposure to AI models, cloud, or data infrastructure is a plus).
- Highly analytical, with a proven ability to dive deep into complex problems and come back with clear, well-founded answers.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, with a track record of producing sharp documents and presentations for senior audiences.
- Hands-on, execution-oriented mindset with strong ownership and a drive to get things done in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.
- Ability to work across strategy, business, technology, and operations, and to engage effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Advanced proficiency in PowerPoint and Excel/financial modelling (or equivalent tools).
- Fluent in English.

Professional Experience - Preferred

- Experience supporting commercial, go-to-market, or partnership initiatives from concept to execution.
- Familiarity with the UAE and wider GCC technology ecosystem.
- International experience is preferred.
- Proficiency in other languages is a plus.

## About Institute of Foundation Models

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: The Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) is a global AI research lab dedicated to the open and independent development of frontier-class foundation models, operating under the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).
- **Entity Type**: Academic Research Institute (part of MBZUAI, a university)
- **Headquarters**: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (with labs in Sunnyvale, CA, USA and Paris, France)
- **Founded**: 2026 (launched with Silicon Valley lab)
- **Founders**: Part of MBZUAI, led by President Eric Xing

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Artificial Intelligence research, foundation model development, open-source AI
- **Target customers**: Researchers, academia, industry partners, and the global AI community (B2B/Research/Public sector)
- **Mission**: To produce the world’s leading models across modalities while ensuring responsible, open, and socially meaningful impact.

## Products & Services
For each major offering:
- **JAIS Series**: State-of-the-art open-source Arabic LLM covering Modern Standard Arabic and regional dialects, including Moroccan Arabic (Darija). Fully documented training lifecycle.
- **Vicuna**: Lightweight open chatbot surpassing 90% of ChatGPT and Bard quality.
- **K2 (K2-65B)**: Large language model with advanced reasoning capabilities, focusing on sustainable performance. Updated version soon to be released.
- **PAN World Model**: Next-gen foundation model for embodied reasoning and physical-world simulation, integrating multimodal inputs (language, video, spatial data, physical actions). Includes PAN-Agent for multimodal reasoning tasks.
- **FM For Bio – GET**: Domain-specific model for biology.
- **LLM360**: Open-source framework enhancing transparency and collaboration in LLM research, providing training code, datasets, and model checkpoints.
- **Research partnerships**: Collaboration with academia, startups, and enterprises via shared compute, co-publishing, and co-development.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not applicable (non-commercial research institute)
- **Key Metric**: Funded by MBZUAI; specific budget not publicly disclosed. Notable open-source model releases (JAIS, Vicuna, K2, PAN).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: MBZUAI, with international advisory boards and peer review processes. Partnerships with industry leaders, academic institutions, and public organizations.
- **Growth Signals**: Launch of Silicon Valley lab in Sunnyvale, CA (2026); expansion into Paris and Abu Dhabi nodes; active hiring for research interns, distributed ML engineers, HPC engineers; release of flagship models (PAN, K2 update).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Openness & transparency**: Full release of training code, datasets, and model checkpoints through LLM360 – one of the most transparent approaches in AI.
- **Global research network**: Three hubs (Abu Dhabi, Silicon Valley, Paris) combining academic rigor with startup agility.
- **Access to large-scale compute**: High-performance computing infrastructure for training frontier models.
- **Multilingual & cultural focus**: JAIS addresses underrepresentation of Arabic and other languages, preserving cultural authenticity.
- **World model innovation**: PAN differentiates from text-only models by predicting comprehensive world states for advanced reasoning and simulation.

## Strategic Focus
- Continue building open, powerful foundation models across language, vision, multimodal, and domain-specific systems.
- Expand global collaboration and talent acquisition, especially in Silicon Valley.
- Advance responsible AI with safety systems and international advisory boards.
- Drive real-world impact through partnerships in scientific discovery, human-AI interaction, and public good.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Collaborative, cutting-edge academic research environment with a mission to open-source AI for global benefit. Teams span Abu Dhabi, Paris, and Silicon Valley.
- **Remote/hybrid/office**: All listed roles are **on-site** (Sunnyvale, CA or Abu Dhabi). No remote policy indicated.
- **Notable perks**: Work with world-class researchers, access to large-scale compute, opportunity to publish and contribute to open-source models. The institute combines the agility of a startup with the resources of an established university.
- **Current openings**: AI Research Internship (LLM), Distributed Machine Learning Engineer, Eval360 Error Analysis Engineer, High Performance Computing Software Engineer (Supercomputing) – all on-site in Sunnyvale or Abu Dhabi.

## Sources
1. [ifm.ai](https://ifm.ai/)
2. [ifm.ai/about](https://ifm.ai/about/)
3. [jobs.lever.co/ifm-us](https://jobs.lever.co/ifm-us)
4. [LinkedIn – Institute of Foundation Models](https://www.linkedin.com/company/institute-of-foundation-models)
5. [MBZUAI News – Launch of IFM and Silicon Valley Lab](https://mbzuai.ac.ae/news/mbzuai-launches-institute-of-foundation-models-and-establishes-silicon-valley-ai-lab/)

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