Experimental Neuroscientist

Astera Neuro seeks to understand and engineer consciousness. We believe consciousness is the process by which the brain builds a coherent internal model of the world and the self. We aim to understand this model and to develop the technologies to write experience directly into the brain. By combining large-scale neural recording causal perturbation and brain-based AI we seek to move neuroscience from observing correlates of experience to engineering it. The same tools carry direct therapeutic promise for neurological and psychiatric diseases that alter perception thought and sense of self. Because the science and tools required do not yet exist we are assembling a founding team of neuroscientists theorists and engineers to create them. We do high-risk high-reward science in a well-resourced collaborative environment with competitive pay and share everything openly under Asteras Open Science Policy.

Experimental Neuroscientists at Astera Neuro develop and lead research programs aimed at understanding how the brain builds a model of the physical world forms new thoughts and creates a stable model of the self. The goal is enough understanding and technical ability to precisely and reversibly modulate each of these functions through write-in experiments.

The role requires both the ability to independently drive a research program from start to finish and to collaborate closely with a diverse team of scientists to collect novel datasets that can transform our understanding of the neurobiology of intelligence and consciousness. Experimental work combines large-scale neural recordings targeted stimulation and behavioral design working closely with computational engineering and software teams to translate biological insight into a detailed model of the brain that can guide causal perturbation experiments and inform new AI architectures. Title and scope are calibrated to track record.

Successful applicants will focus on one or more of Astera Neuros primary research tracks. Background and interest will help determine the best fit among programs aimed at discovering how the primate brain builds a stable model of the physical world how it generates a model of its own physical and mental states and plans and how it combines abstract representations of thoughts into new configurations to support complex flexible behavior.

• Design behavioral paradigms (perceptual and cognitive tasks) aligned with the labs scientific goals.

• Design and execute large-scale multi-area neural recording experiments in awake behaving subjects performing complex perceptual working-memory and higher-cognitive tasks using high-density Neuropixels probes chronic polymer probe arrays two-photon imaging and holographic optogenetics.

• Design and execute write-in (causal perturbation) experiments targeting visual percepts thoughts and internal states using model-guided closed-loop stimulation.

• Build and analyze datasets that stitch across sessions animals and paradigms to support stable brain-wide single-neuron-resolution representations.

• Collaborate across electrophysiology holography computational and engineering teams to keep recording perturbation and modeling tightly coupled.

• Mentor research technicians and at the senior or principal level more junior scientists; contribute to hiring onboarding and lab culture.

• Contribute to publications talks open data and tooling releases and engagement with the broader scientific community.

• PhD with 5-12 years of experience in neuroscience cognitive behavioral or medical sciences biology biomedical engineering or a related field or equivalent research experience.

• Hands-on experience with chronic multi-area large-scale electrophysiology in awake behaving animals performing complex cognitive paradigms including high-density Neuropixels recordings and chronic polymer probe systems.

• Demonstrated ability to lead a systems neuroscience project end to end from hypothesis and paradigm design through rig development data collection analysis and publication.

• Strong quantitative and computational skills with fluency in Python and/or MATLAB modern spike sorting and quality-control pipelines and analysis of high-dimensional population data.

• Ability to work at close quarters with software engineers hardware engineers and computational neuroscientists in a fast-moving multi-team environment.

• Experience with optogenetic electrical or other causal perturbation methods across multiple animal models.

• Experience with closed-loop or real-time experimental control and stimulation.

• Familiarity with neural population dynamics and dynamical-systems modeling.

• Conviction that the brains internal model can be understood in full and agreement that getting there requires a kind of science no single academic lab can do; were betting on scale deep collaboration across science and engineering and open sharing of ideas in a full-stack environment.

• Willingness to be held to an engineering standard. Our decisive tests are write-in experiments: constructing a specific percept thought or internal state not merely decoding. What we cannot build we do not understand.

• Comfort building on shared infrastructure rather than private projects. Recordings and perturbations will be registered onto a common whole-brain functional and anatomical atlas and datasets are designed to stitch across sessions animals and paradigms.

• Care for the animals: the wellbeing of the animals we study supported by dedicated veterinary and behavioral care staff is the foundation of both the science and its credibility.

• Commitment to open science. We will release tools data and methods and aim to create a new dynamic of rapid open exchange in neuroscience.

• Experience contributing to or leading large multi-team programs (academic centers institutes foundations or industry research labs).

• Track record of mentorship and technical leadership.

Experimental Neuroscientist at Astera Neuro focused on answering the hardest and least understood questions in neuroscience: how the brain generates thoughts intelligence and consciousness. We seek to understand the neural representation of the compositional code that underlies primates remarkable ability to combine abstract thoughts into new configurations and we view both reading out and writing in thoughts and ideas as central to that goal.

Astera Neuro provides a comprehensive benefits package and total compensation that is competitive and commensurate with the level of experience and qualifications.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity and inclusion!

Required Experience:

IC