Full-Time
World Model Lead
Institute of Foundation Models
Researches and develops foundation models
No salary listed
Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates
In Person
Master's, PhD
 AI & Machine Learning (2) |
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- Ph.D. or M.S. with 8+ years in AI research or engineering, specializing in world modeling, simulation, or generative modeling.
- Proven track record building large-scale simulators or predictive models for complex environments.
- Deep expertise in transformer-based large language models, diffusion models, and hierarchical latent representations.
- Hands-on experience with reinforcement learning frameworks (policy learning, planning with latent dynamics).
- Strong leadership skills: project management, cross-site coordination, and team mentorship.
- Define and evolve the overall world model architecture, drawing on the PAN principles: multimodal data ingestion; mixed continuous/discrete representations; hierarchical generative modeling with an enhanced large language model backbone and diffusion-based predictors; generative loss grounded in real observations; simulation for reinforcement learning-based agent training.
- Establish performance, safety, and evaluation benchmarks, driving continuous improvement.
- Oversee planning, resourcing, and timeline for world model projects.
- Manage research engineers and scientists (e.g., data curators, reinforcement learning experts, simulator developers) to achieve unified progress.
- Partner with agent, reasoning, and deployment teams to integrate world model outputs into downstream applications (robotics, multi-turn dialogue, autonomous systems).
- Liaise with external collaborators (academia and industry) to incorporate the latest advances and tooling.
- Report project status, risks, and key insights to senior leadership and stakeholders.
- Champion best practices in reproducibility, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
- Experience leading multi-location technical teams in fast-paced research and development settings.
- Published contributions to world model architectures or simulation benchmarks.
- Track record of taking research prototypes into production systems.
IFM builds and studies foundation models—large AI models designed to learn broadly from diverse data and be used across many tasks. Its work centers on academic research to create open, fast, and practical models that address real-world societal needs, rather than narrow applications. The models are developed by a global team across Abu Dhabi, Paris, and Silicon Valley, with a strong emphasis on openness and collaboration to advance AI science and accessibility. Unlike typical private labs that lock models behind paywalls, IFM aims to provide publicly accessible, efficient models that can be used by researchers and developers to solve real problems. The overarching goal is to push the science of foundation models forward while ensuring their benefits reach society at large.
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United Arab Emirates
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- AWS, Cerebras, Nebius, and Hugging Face distribution lowers adoption friction immediately.
- K2 Horizon's 512K context and mobile-sized 0.9B models expand enterprise use cases.
- MBZUAI's May 2025 launch and January 2026 K2 Think V2 show sustained output.
What critics are saying
- Open sourcing K2 Horizon invites DeepSeek, Tencent, and Alibaba clones within months.
- Enterprise buyers can switch to cheaper hosted models if IFM lacks sticky software.
- If MBZUAI reprioritizes funding, IFM's Paris and Silicon Valley footprint becomes existential burn.
What makes Institute of Foundation Models unique
- September 3, 2026 K2 Horizon shipped six Apache 2.0 models from 0.9B to 375B.
- IFM releases weights, code, data, checkpoints, and logs, not just open weights.
- Abu Dhabi, Silicon Valley, and Paris talent give IFM global recruiting reach.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Paid Vacation
Paid Holidays
Parental Leave
Employee Assistance Program
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
401(k) Plan
Wellness Program
Flexible Work Hours
Remote Work Options
Hybrid Work Options
Stock Options
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Company News
The Institute of Foundation Models has launched K2 Horizon, a fleet of six fully open-source AI models ranging from 0.9 billion to 375 billion parameters. The models include weights, code, training data, and methodologies, allowing researchers and developers to inspect and reproduce the work. The 0.9B, 3.7B, and 7B models set new benchmarks at their respective scales. The smallest model can run on watches and glasses, whilst the 3.7B and 7B models work on phones. The dense 32B model and sparse 36B model suit local hosting, and the 375B flagship model targets enterprise deployments. Launched by Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in May 2025, IFM now operates across Silicon Valley, Paris, and Abu Dhabi. The models are available through Hugging Face, vLLM, and SGLang, with API access through partners including AWS and Cerebras. All models use the Apache 2.0 licence.