Research ScientistInstitute of Foundation Models • Sunnyvale, CA, US
Research Scientist
Institute of Foundation Models • Sunnyvale, CA, US
[job_card.30_days_ago]
[job_preview.job_type]
- [job_card.full_time]
[job_card.job_description]
Job Description
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 Research Scientist with a focus on data-centric large language model (LLM) development, your role will center on advancing the frontiers of how LLMs reason, retrieve, and interact with external information sources. You will proactively identify, collect, and organize datasets that enable LLMs to perform complex reasoning tasks, while also developing scalable systems and tooling that integrate cutting-edge research with robust engineering. Your work will have a direct impact on the performance and reliability of intelligent systems at MBZUAI IFM.
Key Responsibilities- Lead research and implementation of reasoning-enhanced LLM capabilities through novel data collection, architecture design, and system integration.
- Design and implement pipelines to collect, curate, and structure open-source and web-scale data relevant to reasoning tasks, ensuring scalability and reproducibility.
- Build robust software to support fine-tuning, evaluation, and deployment of LLMs that interact with structured and unstructured knowledge bases.
- Collaborate with ML researchers to create, test, and evaluate new approaches in information retrieval, agentic search, and RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) pipelines.
- Rapidly prototype tools, APIs, and infrastructure for enabling LLMs to reason over external information, and build datasets for identifying and analyzing LLM failure modes.
- Communicate research findings in internal documents and external publications (e.g., top-tier conferences like ACL, ICLR, NeurIPS).
- Contribute to design/code reviews and foster engineering best practices in a high-performance research environment.
- Represent MBZUAI at conferences and forums, promoting institutional leadership in safe, efficient, and high-impact AI systems.
- Perform all other duties as reasonably directed by the line manager that are commensurate with these functional objectives.
- Master’s in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience required.
- PhD or equivalent research experience in Machine Learning, NLP, or Data Science with a focus on reasoning and LLMs preferred.
- Experience working with large language models, including fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and multi-modal interaction.
- Strong Python development skills with a focus on research-grade code and scalable data pipelines.
- Familiarity with collecting and processing large-scale datasets from open-source and web resources.
- Demonstrated ability to work with ML infrastructure (e.g., model evaluation, optimization, debugging).
- Proactive mindset with the ability to identify impactful research questions and execute on them with minimal supervision.
- Effective communication and collaboration skills for working in cross-functional teams.
- Experience designing and deploying agentic LLM systems, reasoning benchmarks, or RAG pipelines.
- Background in building complex knowledge retrieval systems (e.g., knowledge graphs, semantic search, indexing).
- Strong publication record in leading AI conferences (e.g., ICLR, ACL, NeurIPS, EMNLP).
- Familiarity with performance constraints in production environments and the trade-offs in model and data design.
- Prior contributions to open-source ML research or data tools.
Visa Sponsorship
This position is 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
[job_alerts.create_a_job]
Research Scientist • Sunnyvale, CA, US
[internal_linking.similar_jobs]
The Medical and Health Informatics (MEI) Lab is dedicated to advancing the medical and health sciences by empowering application of a more Personalized, Preventive, Predictive, and Participatory (i...[show_more]
AppLovin makes technologies that help businesses of every size connect to their ideal customers.The company provides end-to-end software and AI solutions for businesses to reach, monetize and grow ...[show_more]
Research Scientist, Recommendation Systems.Our team operates at the frontier of modern recommender systems.With a proven track record of innovating and deploying novel deep learning algorithms and ...[show_more]
The best software comes from Augmenting developers, not replacing them.We’re bringing joy back to software engineering and keeping developers in flow by building the best Developer AI, with deep co...[show_more]
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver.Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on buildin...[show_more]
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...[show_more]
Research Scientist (1 Year Fixed Term).School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States.Research📅Feb 27, 2026 Post Date📅108336 Requisition #.The Stanford Division of Pediatric Radiol...[show_more]
At TikTok, we treat privacy as our top priority in our product design and implementation.Privacy is not just about regulation compliance, but also about a more trusted way to enable technology inno...[show_more]
AppLovin makes technologies that help businesses of every size connect to their ideal customers.The company provides end-to-end software and AI solutions for businesses to reach, monetize and grow ...[show_more] Research Scientist, Abdominal Transplantation (2-Year Fixed-Term).School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States.Research📅Feb 02, 2026 Post Date📅107983 Requisition #.This will be a...[show_more] 
HMBL is your premiere Talent Partner and Executive Search Solution.We were founded on the fact that technical recruiting is most fruitful via partnership --than it is transactional.We partner the m...[show_more]
Cisco is a global leader in networking technology, connecting nearly every internet connection around the world.They are known for their commitment to innovation, creating dynamic solutions that ha...[show_more] Welcome to TikTok's Agentic Recommendation team, where we're reimagining the future of recommendation systems.Our mission is to build world-class, end-to-end recommender systems that go beyond pred...[show_more] 
Oumi is on a mission to make frontier AI truly open for all.We are founded on the belief that AI will have a transformative impact on humanity, and that developing it collectively, in the open, is ...[show_more]
The SETI Institute is a nonprofit research organization focused on the search for life beyond Earth.We support NASA missions to destinations in our own Solar System and look for signs of technology...[show_more]
Team Intro:The Vision-Applied Research team focuses on applied research in Generative AI and CV/Multimodal Understanding, and delivering intelligent solutions to ByteDance products, enabling users ...[show_more]
Our team is looking for a researcher to work with a collaborative group of ML and robotics specialists within Apple’s organization.This team is working to leverage foundation models and build upon ...[show_more]
Nuro is a self-driving technology company on a mission to make autonomy accessible to all.Founded in 2016, Nuro is building the world's most scalable driver, combining cutting-edge AI with automoti...[show_more]
Research Scientist
NTT Research Inc. • Sunnyvale, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
Applied Research Scientist
Axon.ai • Palo Alto, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
Research Scientist, Recommendation Systems
Google DeepMind • Mountain View, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]
Research Scientist, Agents
Augment Code • Palo Alto, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
Research Scientist, Prediction & Planning
Waymo • Mountain View, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]
Research Scientist - World Modeling
Institute of Foundation Models • Sunnyvale, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]
Research Scientist (1 Year Fixed Term)
InsideHigherEd • Stanford, California, United States
[job_card.full_time] +1
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
Research Scientist Privacy-Preserving Large-Scale Model Training & Architecture Optimization
Tik Tok • San Jose, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]
Applied Research Scientist
AppLovin • Palo Alto, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
Research Scientist, Abdominal Transplantation (2-Year Fixed-Term)
InsideHigherEd • Stanford, California, United States
[job_card.full_time] +1
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
Research Scientist, LLM
HMBL • Mountain View, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]
Research Scientist
UPS Supply Chain Solutions • San Jose, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
Research Scientist Graduate (TikTok Recommendation-Agentic AI) - 2026 Start (PhD)
Tik Tok • San Jose, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]
Research Scientist
Oumi • Palo Alto, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]
Research Scientist
SETI Institute • Mountain View, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
Research Scientist, Applied GAI-Vision San Jose Regular
ByteDance • San Jose, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_30] • [promoted]
ML Research Scientist
Apple • Santa Clara, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]
Lead ML Research Scientist
Nuro • Mountain View, CA, United States
[job_card.full_time]
[last_updated.last_updated_variable_days] • [promoted]