---
title: 'Developer Relations & Community Manager – Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) at Institute of Foundation Models'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/developer-relations-community-manager-institute-of-foundation-models-ifm-zr6w0b7wv5e3'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-19'
---

# Developer Relations & Community Manager – Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) at Institute of Foundation Models

- **Company:** Institute of Foundation Models
- **Location:** Sunnyvale, CA
- **Compensation:** $150k–$250k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/ifm-us/64130e19-ffdc-4c64-9745-3e9b4650091b

## 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 have the opportunity to work on the core of cutting-edge foundation model training, alongside world-class researchers, data scientists, and engineers, tackling the most fundamental and impactful challenges in AI development. You will participate in the development of groundbreaking AI solutions that have the potential to reshape entire industries. Strategic and innovative problem-solving skills will be instrumental in establishing MBZUAI as a global hub for high-performance computing in deep learning, driving impactful discoveries that inspire the next generation of AI pioneers.

Job Purpose The Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) is seeking a Developer Relations & Community Manager to help developers discover, start building with, and get the most from IFM's foundation models, including K2, JAIS, and PAN. You will be a hands-on technical voice for our developer community across GitHub, Discord, Hugging Face, and the wider open-model ecosystem.

You will create the technical resources and community programs that move developers from first download to first working result. You will also bring developer needs back to research, engineering and product so IFM can fix friction and build what developers need.

Success means more developers actively building with IFM models, stronger adoption through platform integrations and community partnerships, and a clear feedback loop that improves our models and developer experience.

You will work across IFM's labs and partner closely with research, engineering, product, marketing, and communications.

## Key Responsibilities

1. Drive Technical Strategy & Impact

- Define how IFM measures developer success using adoption, usage, downloads, and platform integrations.
- Use download data, GitHub issues, community questions, and product feedback to decide which tutorials, demos, and events to build next.
- Plan the developer experience for every model release. Make sure quickstarts, sample applications, integration guides, and demos ship on time.

1. Run the Developer Community

- Build onboarding and engagement across IFM's GitHub, Discord, and Hugging Face channels, and answer technical questions.
- Lead and participate in developer events, workshops, hackathons, and community activities.
- Identify, recruit, and recognize strong contributors and projects.

1. Drive Developer Adoption

- Create production-quality sample applications, tutorials, documentation, integration guides, and best practices.
- Understand the needs of developers across segments, from individual researchers to enterprise engineering teams.
- Partner with marketing and communications on developer campaigns and education through videos, blogs, webinars, and workshops.
- Test the path from first download to first working result, then work with engineering to remove friction.

1. Grow the Ecosystem and Close the Loop

- Build technical partnerships with frameworks and platforms such as Hugging Face, vLLM, and Ollama, and make sure IFM models are supported on launch day.
- Advocate for developer needs inside IFM and turn feedback into concrete product and content priorities.
- Work with researchers to turn IFM's AI capabilities into clear, accessible educational resources.

Professional Experience

Essential

- Five or more years in developer relations, developer experience, or technical product or engineering roles, with a track record of shipping content or tools that measurably grew a developer ecosystem.
- Strong technical credibility. You understand AI and machine learning systems and API concepts, and can explain complex technical ideas to different audiences.
- Hands-on technical ability. You can write production-quality code demos, review developer samples critically, and give specific, actionable technical feedback.
- Proven ability to influence research, product, engineering, and marketing teams without direct authority.

## Preferred

- Experience working with large language models or generative AI.
- Public speaking experience at industry conferences and developer events.
- Experience as an open-source maintainer or contributor.
- An existing network in open-source and AI developer communities.

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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