IFOM

AI Engineer

2026/06 | Milan

IFOM is an internationally recognized non-profit cancer research institute supported by the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC), based in Milan within a highly dynamic urban environment.

IFOM continuous success is ensured by the recruitment of highly selected undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate researchers from over 24 countries worldwide.

IFOM is hosted within a research campus shared with the European Institute of Oncology and the Italian Institute of Technology.

IFOM is committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment, based on mutual respect and the enhancement of diversity, offering equal job opportunities to all qualified candidates.

AI Engineer

Candidate will report directly to the Head of Research Computing & Data Science and will be responsible for designing, prototyping, and deploying AI-enabled services — with a strong focus on Large Language Models and generative AI — that support IFOM’s scientific activities and internal operations, working across a hybrid landscape that includes on-premises infrastructure, cloud environments, managed AI services and APIs, and academic computing resources.

We are looking for a candidate whose level of seniority will be assessed primarily on demonstrated skills and hands-on experience; both early-career and more experienced profiles are welcome.

Responsibilities

  • Designing and delivering AI-enabled services that support IFOM’s scientific activities and internal operations, including LLM applications, RAG systems, agent-assisted workflows, document and knowledge workflows, NLP pipelines, and other tools that can be operated as shared services.
  • Working with colleagues across Research Computing & Data Science, IT/ICT, and scientific units to understand needs, prototype solutions quickly, and evolve promising ideas into reliable services.
  • Applying software engineering discipline to AI work: version-controlled code, prompts, data, and models; reproducible environments; automated workflows; clear documentation.
  • Evaluating open-source and commercial models and services, including managed APIs and biomedical/clinical models (e.g., BioBERT, PubMedBERT, MedGemma, Meditron, and similar).
  • Contributing to the deployment and operation of AI services across on-premises infrastructure, cloud environments, managed AI services and APIs, and academic computing resources.
  • Helping adopt good engineering and MLOps practices for evaluation, monitoring, versioning, and maintainability.
  • Working closely with the Research HPC Engineer and the Bioinformatics Engineer.
  • Interfacing effectively with the ICT department on infrastructure, security, networking, and integration topics.
  • Producing clear technical documentation and contributing to internal training.

Qualifications

  • Strong proficiency in Python, including familiarity with the ML ecosystem (e.g., PyTorch, Hugging Face).
  • Solid fundamentals in machine learning and deep learning.
  • Hands-on experience with LLMs and modern AI tooling such as RAG, prompt engineering, vector databases, LangChain, or LlamaIndex.
  • Comfort working in Linux environments, using Git, and building reproducible workflows.
  • Containerization experience with Docker and Apptainer (Singularity).
  • Working knowledge of Kubernetes.
  • Interest in cloud-based AI services and APIs.

Nice to Have

  • Exposure to managed AI services and cloud-based AI APIs.
  • Familiarity with open-source or self-hosted model serving solutions.
  • Experience with HPC environments and workload schedulers such as SLURM.
  • Exposure to MLOps tools for experiment tracking, evaluation, CI/CD, or model lifecycle management.
  • Familiarity with Infrastructure-as-Code and deployment automation.
  • Experience with fine-tuning, quantization, evaluation methodologies, or agentic workflows.
  • Background in biomedical or life sciences domains.

Education

A master’s degree (or a bachelor’s degree with equivalent demonstrable experience) in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Data Science, or a related quantitative field.

Languages

  • Advanced proficiency in spoken and written English.

Soft Skills

  • Learning and teamwork attitude.
  • Problem solving.
  • Good interpersonal skills and empathy.
  • Curiosity and learning agility.
  • Engineering rigor and service mindset.
  • Ownership and reliability.
  • Ability to collaborate across scientific, engineering, and IT/ICT functions.
  • Clear written and verbal communication.

What We Offer

  • International work environment.
  • Continuous training.
  • Flextime.
  • Guest house inside the campus.
  • Discount agreements for gym, pharmacy, psychology services, and local shops.
  • Bar and canteen inside the campus with lunch benefit.
  • Company nursery.
  • Relocation and family support through the Welcome Office.
  • Medical service.
  • Laptop.
  • CAF service for tax declaration.
  • Lab G: a laboratory specifically designed for pregnant or breastfeeding women researchers.

Contract Type

Permanent contract, full time - CCNL Chimico Farmaceutico

Compensation: €45,000 – €55,000 gross annual salary, based on experience.

Location

Milan - Scalo di Porta Romana area

Contact Details

If you are interested in this opportunity, please submit your CV and a letter of interest to: recruitment@ifom.eu

This announcement is addressed to both sexes pursuant to Laws 903/77 and 125/91 and to people of all ages and nationalities pursuant to Legislative Decrees 215/03 and 216/03.

last update: 12/06/26
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