---
title: 'Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Institute of Foundation Models'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-quality-assurance-engineer-institute-of-foundation-models-abu-dhabi-5p2vmwwbn3xz'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-26'
---

# Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Institute of Foundation Models

- **Company:** Institute of Foundation Models
- **Location:** Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2025-06-16
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-26
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/ifm-us/33294091-c63a-458b-a40e-c1ebb9f3cce9

## 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

As a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer, you will play a critical role in ensuring the reliability, safety, and performance of our AI-driven products and software platforms. Unlike traditional QA roles, this position requires a deep understanding of both software testing methodologies and the unique challenges presented by AI systems, including model evaluation, fairness, robustness, and multi-modal feature testing. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to develop comprehensive test strategies covering both AI components and conventional software systems.

Arabic language proficiency is preferred to support certain data and product validation tasks.

## Key Responsibilities

- Design and implement comprehensive test plans and test cases for AI-powered applications, APIs, and platform features.
- Develop automated testing frameworks for AI models, data pipelines, and software features, primarily leveraging Python.
- Evaluate AI model outputs for correctness, fairness, robustness, and consistency across various tasks and datasets.
- Collaborate with AI researchers, data scientists, and engineers to define testing metrics and acceptance criteria for AI models.
- Conduct manual and exploratory testing where automation is insufficient, especially for AI feature behavior.
- Perform end-to-end testing across distributed systems, APIs, databases, web applications, and model inference pipelines.
- Implement performance testing for both AI inference and software systems to ensure responsiveness and scalability.
- Develop continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) pipelines to ensure reliable and repeatable testing processes.
- Track, analyze, and report defects and quality metrics to stakeholders, driving root cause analysis and resolution.
- Contribute to internal quality standards, best practices, and documentation to strengthen the QA function within IFM.

Academic Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, AI, or a related technical field required.
- Master’s degree or equivalent experience in AI systems, software testing, or quality assurance preferred.

Professional Experience - Required

- Extensive experience in software quality assurance, test automation, and validation of complex software systems.
- Strong proficiency in Python, with hands-on experience in test automation frameworks such as PyTest or similar.
- Understanding of AI/ML model testing challenges, including non-deterministic outputs, dataset biases, and model evaluation metrics.
- Experience testing distributed systems, RESTful APIs, cloud-native applications, and microservices architectures.
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, or GitHub Actions.
- Strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and ability to identify edge cases and failure modes.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across multi-disciplinary teams.

Professional Experience - Preferred

- Experience testing AI models (LLMs, computer vision, multi-modal models) and AI-enhanced software features.
- Proficiency with AI/ML libraries and frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Hugging Face for model validation.
- Familiarity with data quality assurance, dataset validation, and annotation workflows.
- Knowledge of cloud infrastructure platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Arabic language proficiency to assist in linguistic, data, or region-specific validation scenarios.
- Contributions to open-source QA tools or AI testing frameworks.

## 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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