Principal Hardware Engineer, Precision Instrumentation

The role

You will design and build physical systems for experiments, including mechanical systems, optical components, and custom laboratory instrumentation. You will own complex instruments end-to-end and help equip and run the design and prototyping facility.

What you will do

• Design precision mechanical systems for experiments.
• Build components for custom microscopes and optical systems.
• Design and iterate custom laboratory instrumentation and surgical or experimental robotics.
• Develop electronics and control hardware.
• Help build the design and prototyping facility including tooling, workflows, and fabrication capabilities.
• Own complex instruments end-to-end.
• Drive technical direction.
• Help equip and run the design and prototyping facility.
• Set engineering culture and standards.
• Mentor and hire engineers.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience) with 12+ years of experience in mechanical, electrical, or biomedical engineering, physics, or a related field.
• Track record of building precision hardware in a high-precision industry.
• Experience designing and building hardware that other people relied on for real work and keeping it running.
• Resourcefulness about getting things built quickly.
• Comfort working from a rough idea rather than a finished spec.
• Deep fundamentals in mechanical design and fabrication.
• Real working ability in electronics or optics.
• Intellectual curiosity, collaborative instincts, and eagerness to learn the science.
• Track record of owning complex instruments end-to-end.
• Experience making and defending design tradeoffs.
• Experience equipping and running a workshop, makerspace, or prototyping facility.
• History of mentoring engineers or setting engineering culture and standards.

Nice to have

• Experience with small precise parts, difficult materials, tight tolerances, precision motion, or optical alignment.
• Hands-on electronics design experience (PCB layout, embedded systems, sensor/actuator integration).
• Familiarity with electrophysiology or other low-volume, high-complexity hardware environments.
• CAD/CAM proficiency with hands-on machining (CNC, lathe, mill) and 3D printing.
• Experience integrating hardware with data acquisition systems (DAQ, TTL synchronization, serial/SPI protocols).

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package
• Total compensation that is competitive and commensurate with the level of experience and qualifications

About the company

Astera is a private foundation on a mission to steer science and technology toward a better future. Astera Neuro seeks to understand and engineer consciousness by combining large-scale neural recording, causal perturbation, and brain-based AI.