Research Scientist - Agents
About the job
- BS, MS, or PhD degree (or equivalent experience) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related fields
- Minimum 2 years of experience in LLM training/fine-tuning, evaluations, reinforcement learning, LLM inference, distributed machine learning systems
- Python and PyTorch development experience
- Experience in using LLM agents for your personal or professional use
- Experience in designing and implementing algorithms from scratch (for algorithms focus)
- Experience in dataset curation and generation (for data focus)
- Experience in building or contributing to training/serving infrastructure (for systems focus)
- Experience in designing and deep diving into evaluations (for evals focus)
- Visa sponsorship eligible
- Academic qualifications acceptable as listed
- Propose, prototype, and scale algorithms/systems to support agentic learning
- Develop new paradigms for agentic behavior that go beyond current practices
- Contribute to technical reports, research publications, and open-source software
- Collaborate with other teams to produce state-of-the-art foundation models
- Expertise in one or more of PyTorch, Ray, Triton, CUDA C++
- Strong knowledge of literature on reinforcement learning, LLM reasoning, and tool use
- Experience in training or using LLM agents for software engineering tasks
- Deep understanding of reinforcement learning principles
- Experience implementing distributed learning algorithms
- Contributions to published research and/or open-source machine learning software
About the company
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.
Company Size
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Total Funding
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Headquarters
United Arab Emirates
Founded
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Get referred to Institute of Foundation Models
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- AWS, Cerebras, Nebius, Hugging Face, vLLM, and SGLang already distribute K2 Horizon.
- October 2026 benchmark chatter praises K2 Horizon's small models and 375B enterprise flagship.
- MBZUAI's October 2026 hiring surge supports rapid expansion across agents, world models, and infrastructure.
What critics are saying
- Open-sourcing K2 Horizon hands competitors reproducible recipes, shrinking IFM's moat by 2027.
- MBZUAI listed 45 IFM vacancies on October 2, 2026, signaling heavy execution strain.
- If K2 Horizon misses commercial adoption, IFM remains a prestige lab dependent on state capital.
What makes Institute of Foundation Models unique
- September 3, 2026 K2 Horizon shipped six fully open models with weights, code, and data.
- IFM offers Apache 2.0 frontier models, unlike closed labs protecting training recipes and checkpoints.
- MBZUAI-backed labs in Abu Dhabi, Silicon Valley, and Paris combine research depth with deployment access.
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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
Company Equity
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.