---
title: 'Product Marketing Manager, AI Models at Institute of Foundation Models'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/product-marketing-manager-ai-models-institute-of-foundation-models-sunnyvale-8vzp6h6p8bsf'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-19'
---

# Product Marketing Manager, AI Models at Institute of Foundation Models

- **Company:** Institute of Foundation Models
- **Location:** Sunnyvale, CA
- **Compensation:** $230k–$260k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/ifm-us/65eb5c01-2751-4fec-a3d1-5d50ecf37e69

## 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.

## The Role

IFM is seeking a Product Marketing Manager to lead launch and sustaining marketing for our current and developing portfolio of large language models (LLMs) and world models. This person will translate complex AI research and model capabilities into clear positioning, compelling content, and coordinated campaigns that build awareness, engagement, and adoption.

Working closely with, engineering, communications teams and business planning, you will shape how we bring models to market and maintain momentum beyond launch. You should have AI experience, a strong understanding of the AI model landscape, and the ability to communicate credibly with technical audiences while making our work accessible to broader audiences.

Success in this role means delivering well-coordinated launches and ongoing marketing programs that demonstrate each model’s relevance, sustain engagement, and grow adoption—while establishing a consistent and distinctive voice for IFM.

## Key Responsibilities

- Lead model launch planning. Develop and execute integrated go-to-market plans for LLM and world model releases, defining target audiences, positioning, messaging, launch assets, channels, timelines, and success measures.
- Build sustaining marketing programs. Maintain momentum beyond launch through technical explainers, demonstrations, use cases, community engagement, partner stories, and model updates.
- Develop positioning and messaging. Articulate what each model enables, who it serves, and how it differs from alternatives. Ground claims in validated capabilities, evaluations, and release details.
- Understand the AI model landscape. Track competing models, emerging capabilities, developer needs, and shifts in open-source and proprietary AI. Translate these insights into recommendations for positioning and campaigns.
- Translate research into relevant stories. Partner with researchers and engineers to explain model architectures, benchmarks, training approaches, and practical applications with clarity and technical accuracy.
- Create compelling marketing content. Partner to develop launch narratives, messaging briefs, website copy, blog posts, presentations, FAQs, briefs for demos, creative assets, and in some cases, social content.
- Coordinate execution across teams. Align research, engineering, communications, design, and external partners around launch readiness, deliverables, and deadlines.
- Support communications and executive visibility. Equip communications teams with competitive context, proof points, and materials for media, events, and industry discussions.
- Measure and improve performance. Establish meaningful metrics for awareness, engagement, and adoption. Use results and audience feedback to refine future launches and ongoing campaigns.

## Qualifications

- Five or more years of experience in product marketing, technical marketing, or a related role, including direct experience marketing AI or machine learning models, platforms, or products.
- A strong understanding of the AI model landscape, including LLMs, multimodal models, emerging world models, and the audiences that develop, evaluate, and use them.
- Experience leading complex technical launches, from audience definition and positioning through execution and post-launch engagement.
- The ability to understand technical research, ask informed questions, and translate findings into accurate, differentiated messaging.
- Familiarity with model evaluation, benchmarks, deployment considerations, and distinctions among open-source, open-weight, and proprietary releases.
- Excellent writing and storytelling skills, with the ability to tailor content for researchers, developers, enterprise audiences, partners, and media.
- Strong project management skills and experience working across technical and creative teams.
- A practical, hands-on approach: you can set strategy, create content, manage execution, and assess results.

## Preferred qualifications

- Experience marketing foundation models, open-source AI projects, or developer-focused AI products.
- Experience working with research scientists or within an AI research organization.
- Familiarity with world model applications such as simulation, robotics, embodied AI, and interactive environments.
- Experience engaging AI communities through platforms such as Hugging Face and GitHub.
- Experience building campaigns that turn technical releases into sustained developer engagement and adoption.
- Experience planning and overseeing paid marketing campaigns, including audience selection, messaging, channel recommendations, budget allocation, and coordination with internal specialists or external agencies.
- Experience evaluating paid media’s contribution to engagement and adoption. Hands-on campaign setup and optimization experience is a plus.

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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