Research Scientist, Theory & Computation

The role

Research Scientists in Theory & Computation develop and lead research programs to understand the representations and dynamics of conscious access. They build models of neural representations and dynamical systems to convert understanding into the ability to steer the brain system.

What you will do

• Build models of compositional neural representation grounded in cognitive theory.
• Build coupled dynamical-systems models of interactions between multiple brain areas.
• Analyze the fixed-point structure of these systems.
• Derive how to sculpt inputs using optogenetic and electrical stimulation technology.
• Stitch data together across subjects and species into foundation models of neural activity.
• Propose and help design new experiments.
• Abstract key computational principles from the data into new NeuroAI architectures.
• Mentor research engineers and junior scientists.
• Contribute to publications, talks, open data and tooling releases.

Required qualifications

• PhD with 3-12+ years of experience in computational neuroscience, neuroscience, physics, statistics, applied mathematics, electrical engineering, computer science, control theory, robotics, or a relat
• Demonstrated ability to lead a computational or theoretical research project end to end.
• Depth in dynamical systems, including fixed-point and attractor analysis, stability and bifurcation structure, and the fitting of dynamical models to noisy, partially observed data.
• Strong computational skills, with fluency in Python and modern machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX.
• Comfort with large-scale data pipelines.
• Hands-on experience analyzing large-scale neural datasets from electrophysiology, two-photon imaging, or comparable methods.
• Experience with high-density recordings such as Neuropixels and modern spike-sorting and quality-control pipelines such as Kilosort.
• Ability to work at close quarters with experimental neuroscientists, software engineers, and hardware engineers.

Nice to have

• Graduate work or research experience in neuroscience
• Experience with latent-variable and state-space models of neural population activity, such as GPFA, LFADS, switching state-space models, or recurrent network models fit to data.
• Background in control theory, optimal control, or robotics, particularly as applied to steering high-dimensional systems toward target states.
• Background in statistics or theoretical physics, with a serious interest in applying it to neural systems.
• Experience designing or implementing real-time or closed-loop decoders and model-guided stimulation.
• Experience with foundation-model and self-supervised approaches applied to neural or behavioral data.
• Contributions to open-source neuroscience or scientific computing projects.

Benefits

• competitive pay
• comprehensive benefits package

About the company

Astera Neuro seeks to understand and engineer consciousness by combining large-scale neural recording, causal perturbation, and brain-based AI. They are assembling a founding team of neuroscientists, theorists, and engineers to create new science and tools.