---
title: 'Community Manager at Institute of Foundation Models'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/community-manager-institute-of-foundation-models-sunnyvale-h12h6ktmp5f3'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-26'
---

# Community Manager at Institute of Foundation Models

- **Company:** Institute of Foundation Models
- **Location:** Sunnyvale, CA
- **Compensation:** $150k–$200k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-22
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-26
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/ifm-us/7854a85d-fe0d-4290-90d9-f58e8ce39fdb

## Job description

## About IFM

The Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) is a global AI research lab dedicated to open and independent development of frontier-class foundation models. Launched in May 2025 by MBZUAI, IFM operates from advanced lab facilities in Abu Dhabi, Silicon Valley and Paris. IFM’s model portfolio includes K2 series, the fully open-source fleet of LLMs; Jais, the most advanced Arabic LLM; and PAN, the next-gen World Model for embodied reasoning and real-world simulation.

## Role Summary

The Community Manager builds and sustains IFM’s developer community in Silicon Valley, bringing together people interested in our large language models (LLMs) and World Models. The role turns interest in IFM into ongoing participation, collaboration and lasting relationships.

You will own local events, hackathons, online engagement and ecosystem partnerships. Working closely with Developer Relations (DevRel), researchers and Marketing, you will create opportunities for members to learn, build together and stay connected with IFM.

This role requires strong relationship skills and experience building active technical communities. A technical background is highly preferred.

Travel requirement: Up to 50%

## Key Responsibilities

- Build ongoing relationships with developers, founders, researchers and students, connecting them with IFM and with each other across our model portfolio.
- Plan and deliver meetups, workshops and hackathons, owning audience development, format, logistics and follow-up, with technical content provided by DevRel and researchers.
- Manage engagement across relevant online channels, welcoming members, encouraging useful discussions and connecting questions with the right people.
- Develop partnerships with universities, developer groups, accelerators and local organizations to create sustained community programs.
- Make useful introductions, support member-led activities and showcase community projects to maintain engagement between events.
- Work with DevRel, researchers and Marketing to shape relevant programs, share community feedback and connect interested builders with deeper technical support.
- Track active participation, repeat engagement, partner activity and project follow-through, using feedback and results to improve community programs.

## Qualifications

Academic qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, or equivalent practical experience.

## Minimum requirements

- Experience building and sustaining developer or technical communities, with evidence of active participation, repeat engagement and lasting member relationships.
- Experience delivering events, workshops or hackathons from planning through execution and follow-up, with strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
- A track record of developing productive partnerships with organizations such as universities, developer groups, accelerators or open-source communities.
- Experience managing online communities, including moderation, member onboarding, discussions and timely follow-up.
- A working understanding of AI and the developer ecosystem, sufficient to engage credibly with builders, understand their interests and recognize when technical expertise is needed.
- Clear written and verbal communication, sound interpersonal judgment and the ability to coordinate programs independently across technical and non-technical teams.

## Preferred experience

- A technical background in computer science, engineering, AI or a related field is highly preferred, ideally with hands-on experience building software or working with AI models.
- Established relationships within the Silicon Valley developer, startup or university ecosystem.
- Experience with AI or open-source communities, including programs that help participants continue building beyond an initial event.
- Experience coordinating community programs across locations and working with international teams.

Visa Sponsorship This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

## Benefits Include

*Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits *Bonus *401K Plan *Generous paid time off, sick leave and holidays *Paid Parental Leave *Employee Assistance Program *Life insurance and disability

## 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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