Project Manager

The Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) is seeking a Project Manager to oversee product and lab priorities in Abu Dhabi and help drive execution across research, product, and community initiatives.

This role focuses on orchestrating work rather than owning a single function: turning priorities into clear plans, keeping teams aligned, and ensuring follow-through on the tasks that move our models and products forward. A core part of this is coordinating model launches end to end - ensuring that research, engineering, product, marketing, and communications are aligned and ready when a model goes live.

The ideal candidate is structured, proactive, and comfortable working in a flat organization where everyone takes ownership and is willing to roll up their sleeves.

Key Responsibilities

Product & Project Orchestration

• Work with Research, Engineering and Product teams to translate high-level priorities into clear project plans, milestones, and timelines.
• Maintain an up-to-date view of product roadmaps for the Abu Dhabi lab, highlighting dependencies, risks, and decision points.
• Coordinate implementation for selected products or features, ensuring that requirements, designs, and technical work stay aligned.
• Facilitate regular check-ins (standups, sprint reviews, planning sessions) to keep projects on track and unblock teams.
• Ensure that key decisions, action items, and next steps are clearly captured and followed through.

Model Launch Coordination

• Own the end-to-end coordination of model launches (e.g., K2, JAIS, PAN): from research-to-production handoff through public release and post-launch follow-up.
• Work with Research and Engineering to track readiness milestones, resolve blockers, and ensure documentation and technical artifacts are in place before launch.
• Coordinate launch timelines and dependencies across Product, Engineering, Legal, and Marketing to ensure all teams are aligned and nothing slips through the cracks.
• Support operational readiness for launches, pilots, and external partnerships - ensuring the right assets, environments, and approvals are in place.
• Run launch retrospectives to capture lessons learned and improve the process for future releases.

Marketing & Communications Liaison

• Serve as the coordination point between technical teams and Marketing/Communications (MarComms) for model launches, announcements, and external messaging.
• Ensure MarComms has timely access to technical details, key milestones, and positioning inputs needed to prepare launch materials, blog posts, and demos.
• Coordinate lab contributions to external events, conferences, and partner briefings - helping position IFM's work effectively to outside audiences.
• Work with the Community team to ensure Abu Dhabi lab priorities are reflected in hackathons, workshops, open days, and partner programs.

Lab Operations & Cross-Team Coordination

• Serve as a coordination point for the Abu Dhabi lab: aligning work across engineering, product, community, and operations.
• Help prioritize lab initiatives and manage trade-offs when competing priorities arise.
• Coordinate with other IFM sites (e.g., international labs) to synchronize timelines, share status, and reduce duplication.
• Maintain lightweight but reliable processes and tools for tracking work, while keeping bureaucracy low.

Execution, Tracking & Reporting

• Set up simple, transparent mechanisms to track progress on key initiatives.
• Prepare concise status updates for leadership and stakeholders, highlighting progress, risks, and decisions needed.
• Proactively identify blockers and drive them to resolution by pulling in the right people - not by escalating everything.
• Help the team continuously improve how it works: refine processes, simplify where possible, and share best practices across projects.

Essential Experience

• 3-6 years of experience in project management, program management, product operations, or closely related roles in a technology, research, or product-building environment.
• Proven track record of running cross-functional projects end to end: from clarifying goals and scope, to planning, to execution and follow-through.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple parallel workstreams, priorities, and stakeholders.
• Comfortable working with technical teams (researchers, engineers, product) and understanding basic technical concepts well enough to manage timelines, dependencies, and risks.
• Clear and concise communicator, able to summarize complex work into simple updates for different audiences (leadership, partners, internal teams).
• Demonstrated ability to work in a flat, fast-moving environment - taking ownership, adapting to changing priorities, and doing what is needed to keep work moving.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in AI/ML, deep-tech, or research lab environments where projects involve both exploration and delivery.
• Experience coordinating product or model launches - including cross-functional readiness, external communications, and post-launch follow-up.
• Familiarity with product development lifecycles (from discovery and prototyping to launch and iteration).
• Exposure to foundation models, large-scale AI systems, or similar technologies (formal expertise not required, but curiosity and willingness to learn are important).
• Comfort working across technical and non-technical audiences, including marketing, communications, and executive stakeholders.

Academic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field preferred.