AI R&D Scientist

Job Description: AI R&D Scientist

Are you a researcher who wants to see your academic breakthroughs directly improve the lives of millions of students? Alef Education —the UAE’s home-grown EdTech giant and the first of its kind to list on the ADX—is seeking an AI R&D Scientist to lead our generative intelligence initiatives in Abu Dhabi .

At Alef Education, we bridge the gap between “what’s next” in AI and “what works” in the classroom. Managing a massive ecosystem of 1.1 million students across the UAE, Indonesia, and Morocco, we generate over 16 million data points daily. In this role, you won’t just publish papers; you will architect autonomous agents, fine-tune massive language models, and build the “smart heart” of a global learning platform. We are looking for a hands-on visionary who can navigate the full R&D lifecycle—from a bold hypothesis to a production-ready feature.

Your Technical & Research Mission

Generative AI R&D & Prototyping

• Lifecycle Leadership: Own the end-to-end R&D cycle for GenAI features, including data preparation, model selection, rapid prototyping, and real-world pilot testing.

• Agentic Workflows: Architect workflows for agent orchestration, model selection, and inference optimization to enable scalable, autonomous AI applications.

• Research Mastery: Stay at the bleeding edge of AI by regularly reviewing academic papers and open-source breakthroughs, identifying opportunities to enhance Alef’s core products.

Scalability & Engineering Excellence

• Advanced Training: Lead the training and fine-tuning of Large Language Models (LLMs) and develop robust RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines.

• Reusable Tooling: Build internal tools, prompt libraries, and evaluation scripts to accelerate experimentation for the entire engineering team.

• Optimization: Implement performance optimizations such as quantization and distillation to ensure low-latency AI responses in production.

Safety, Ethics & Governance

• Ethical AI: Ensure every AI solution meets the highest standards of safety, privacy, and bias mitigation before being deployed to students.

• Collaboration: Partner with Product Managers, UX Designers, and Backend Engineers to ensure AI features solve actual classroom pain points while meeting business goals.

What You Bring to Alef Education

• Education: Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, Math, or a related technical field.

• Proven Track Record: Minimum 5 years in AI/ML engineering, with at least 2 years of hands-on R&D in Generative AI .

• Tech Stack: Mastery of Python, PyTorch, and FastAPI ; Hands-on experience with Docker & Kubernetes (AKS) .

• Ecosystem Knowledge: Strong experience in LLM fine-tuning , agent orchestration, and building data pipelines for multimodal corpora.

• Preferred Experience: Familiarity with Azure AI Services/Foundry and LLM optimization frameworks (vLLM, llama.cpp, etc.).

• Language Proficiency: Professional fluency in English and Arabic .

Job Overview Data

Why Abu Dhabi for AI?

As an AI Scientist in Abu Dhabi, you are working in a nation that appointed the world’s first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence . The UAE’s tax-free income policy means a salary here provides significantly higher take-home pay compared to London or New York.

The Alef Education Package Includes:

• Annual Flight Allowance & Education Allowance.

• Annual Performance Bonus.

• Comprehensive Life Insurance & Enhanced Leave.

The Alef Mission: We don’t just imagine a better future for education; we build it. Join a mission-driven team that values ​​curiosity, purpose, and the drive to make a real-world difference.