Director - Research and Development

Inception42; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 440,690 - 661,035; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare

Education support

Leave benefits

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Inception42 is actively seeking a Director of R&D in Applied AI to lead our innovative research function. This role entails setting the technical direction for flagship programs such as language models and multi-agent systems, while managing high-stakes client deliveries.

The successful candidate will have a strong background in AI/ML, with a minimum of 10 years experience and a proven track record in technical leadership. This position offers a unique opportunity to influence the future of applied AI solutions in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in AI / ML with 4+ years in leadership roles directing research programs.
• Demonstrated ownership of production model releases.
• Strong publication record in NLP / ML.

Responsibilities

• Lead the applied R&D portfolio and set technical direction.
• Direct flagship programs and oversee high-stakes client delivery.
• Represent Inception R&D at executive and Board level.

Skills

AI / ML experience

Technical leadership

NLP specialization

Excellent communication

Education

M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Engineering, or AI-related field

Job description

Inception, a G42 company, is the region’s leading innovator of AI-powered domain-specific as well as industry-agnostic products, built on a rich heritage of research and development. Within the G42 ecosystem, Inception functions as the core intelligence layer – transforming data and compute infrastructure into real-world, applied AI solutions. Beyond its commercial endeavors, Inception is committed to creating positive societal impact. For more information, please visit www.inceptionai.ai

Overview

Inception is seeking an accomplished Director of R&D in Applied AI, with a proven track record of directing multi-program applied research portfolios, to lead our applied AI research function. This role offers the rare opportunity to set the technical direction across multiple flagship programs in parallel — including a foundation language model family and multi-agent and agentic systems research— while providing oversight to high-stakes client delivery tracks that bring those research outputs into production.

Responsibilities

In the Director of R&D role you will own the active applied research portfolio of the function, set its technical direction, and represent it at executive and Board level. You will direct concurrent flagship programs in foundation language models and multi-agent systems, while overseeing client delivery tracks that productize those research outputs. You will be the named technical arbiter on release, IP and prioritization decisions, and the senior point of contact for our most strategic external partners.

• Own the active R&D portfolio end-to-end — research roadmap, milestones, resource allocation and quarterly reviews.
• Direct the foundation language model program end-to-end — pre-training, post-training (instruction tuning, alignment), evaluation (language quality, multilingual performance, and safety posture), and release.
• Provide oversight to high-stakes client and delivery tracks and run regular reviews with R&D team covering progress, blockers, and re-allocation decisions across active programs.
• Represent Inception R&D in CEO-, group-executive- and Board-level forums, with the ability to make impactful presentations.
• Own the most strategic external partnerships academic research partners, frontier-model labs, the hyperscaler partnership cadence, sister-organization safety teams, and evaluation and red-teaming vendors — and lead joint workstreams to closure.
• Lead a team of applied scientists and senior applied scientists through technical mentorship, performance and growth, hiring, and defining team shape and talent strategy.
• Set and enforce R&D quality standards across projects and teams.
  
  

Qualifications

The criteria for your success would include the maturity of the R&D portfolio you direct, foundation-model releases shipped under your sign-off, the health and growth of the Applied Science team, the depth of strategic partnerships sustained, and the readiness of research outputs for executive and Board consumption.

To qualify, you must have

• M.Sc. or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or an AI-related field. Specialization in NLP, large language models, or applied ML is highly desirable.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in AI / ML, with at least 4 years in a technical leadership or director-level role directing multiple concurrent research programs.
• Demonstrated ownership of at least one production foundation-model release end-to-end.
• Strong publication record in major NLP / ML venues, or an equivalent product-driven research and IP-filing track record.
• Production experience with Arabic or other lower-resource-language NLP at scale.
• Experience deploying AI Models into regulated or government contexts, including content moderation and policy-aligned guardrails.
• Hands-on familiarity with agentic-AI architectures — planning, tool use, multi-agent simulation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
  
  

What We Look For

If you are a performance-driven, inquisitive mind with the agility to adapt to ambiguity, you will fit right in. You should be eager to explore opportunities to build meaningful collaborations with stakeholders and aspire to create unique customer-centric solutions. Bias for action and a passion to conquer new frontiers in the AI space is at the heart of the Inception community.

What Working At Inception Offers

Culture: An open, diverse and inclusive environment with a global vision that encourages personal growth and focuses on ground-breaking, industry-first innovations.

Career: Outstanding learning, development & growth opportunities via structured training programs and innovative, high-tech projects.

Rewards: A competitive remuneration package with a host of perks including healthcare, education support, leave benefits and more.

If you can confidently demonstrate that you meet the criteria above, please contact us as soon as possible.