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Astera

Neuroscience and AI research institute advancing brain-like AGI

Berkeley, CAOnsite1-50aiBootstrapped
About

Astera Institute conducts in-house research at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence to understand biological intelligence and engineer safe AGI systems. Through divisions like Neuro & AGI and Radial, they run labs on rodent neuroscience, structural biology ML, hierarchical RL, and open science tools. Their work integrates experimental neuroscience with AI architectures to drive transformative progress in intelligence and life sciences.

Tech stack
PythonPyTorchLinuxKubernetesC++JAXCUDATransformersProduct RoadmappingDockerAnsiblePrometheusGrafanaNumPyTensorFlowGitTritonUnity
Perks & benefits
Health insurance403bLong-term disabilityFSAsCommuter benefits
Browse by role
Open roles · 21
Astera

Recruiting Coordinator

Build and operate Astera’s recruiting engine, owning candidate scheduling, communication, pipeline tracking in Ashby, and logistics for twice-annual residency cohorts. Requires 2+ years in operations or executive support with exceptional organization and communication skills.

80k – 150kEmeryville, CARecruitingOn-site2+ YOEATSAshby
Astera

Project Manager - DiffUSE Project

The Project Manager will coordinate efforts across a multidisciplinary team for The DiffUSE Project, ensuring strategic alignment, managing project plans, budgets, and communications, and fostering a collaborative environment.

170k – 225kEmeryville, CATechnical Program ManagementOn-site2+ YOERisk ManagementBudget Management
Astera

General DiffUSE Job Application

Open general application for computational biology, ML research, data science, software engineering, and program roles at DiffUSE, focused on protein dynamics, structural data infrastructure, and open science tooling.

100k – 300kEmeryville, CAML EngineeringOn-sitemmCIFCryo-EM
Astera

Computational Neuroscience Intern - Data Analysis and Modeling

Analyzes large-scale connectome and neurophysiology datasets, develops computational models of neural circuits, and implements data pipelines using Python/Matlab. Ideal for students in computational neuroscience or related fields with data analysis experience.

25 – 60Emeryville, CAData ScienceHybridEntry levelGitNEST
Astera

Software Engineering Intern – Distributed Simulation Systems

Software Engineering Intern builds infrastructure for large-scale distributed simulation systems including biological and 3D physics environments. Works on C++ high-performance systems, networking, orchestration, and performance optimization with strong fundamentals required.

25 – 60Emeryville, CAFullstack EngineeringHybridEntry levelC++CUDA
Astera

Software Engineer — Distributed Simulation Systems

Builds core infrastructure for large-scale distributed simulation systems, including biological and 3D physics environments. Requires strong C++ systems programming, distributed computing, high-performance networking, and experience with MuJoCo or similar simulators.

100k – 400kEmeryville, CABackend EngineeringHybridC++CUDA
Astera

Research Scientist / Engineer, Two-Photon Imaging & Holographic Optogenetics

Leads development of miniaturized two-photon microscopes for cellular-resolution imaging and holographic optogenetics in rodents. Requires PhD, hands-on surgery experience, two-photon systems expertise, and neural data analysis skills in Python/MATLAB.

180k – 230kEmeryville, CAOtherOn-sitePythonMATLAB
Astera

Radial Postdoctoral Fellow – Dynamic Structural Biology (diffUSE Project)

Conducts advanced X-ray crystallography experiments to study protein dynamics in the diffUSE project, including crystal growth, synchrotron data collection, and computational modeling of conformational ensembles. Requires PhD in structural biology or related field with hands-on crystallography experience.

70k – 70kIthaca, NYOtherOn-siteSAXSPython
Astera

Machine Learning Researcher - Springtail

Conducts fundamental research on data-efficient ML architectures, including bootstrapped program synthesis and self-synthesizing learning systems. Requires Master's in ML/math, PyTorch fluency, and research experience.

150k – 300kEmeryville, CAAI ResearchHybridJAXCUDA
Astera

Head of Bio AI - Radial

Leads technical direction for bio AI research programs, architects AI/computational infrastructure, prototypes modeling systems, and builds high-caliber engineering team. Requires deep ML expertise in generative models, large-scale training, and bio applications with hands-on leadership.

400k – 600kEmeryville, CAML EngineeringHybridTransformersML Pipelines
Astera

Scientist - Ensemble Structural Informatics

Leads development of standards and validation frameworks for dynamic structural biology data, focusing on ensemble models from X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM. Collaborates with engineers to build deposition, search, and retrieval infrastructure for the diffUSE Project. Requires PhD in structural biology or related field.

100k – 180kEmeryville, CAData ScienceOn-sitePDBEMDB
Astera

Research Scientist: Hierarchical Sensorimotor Perception

Develops bi-directional/recurrent architectures for hierarchical sensorimotor perception inspired by brain principles to advance AGI. Requires PhD-level expertise in deep learning frameworks like PyTorch/JAX, theoretical rigor, and passion for biological intelligence.

150k – 300kEmeryville, CAAI ResearchHybridJAXPyTorch
Astera

Research Scientist: Hierarchical RL Agents

Conducts fundamental research on hierarchical RL agents, developing architectures for world modeling, planning, and ethologically constrained learning. Collaborates cross-functionally to translate brain-inspired principles into scalable AGI systems; requires PhD-level expertise in AI/ML and strong coding skills.

150k – 300kEmeryville, CAAI ResearchHybridJAXPyTorch
Astera

Research Scientist/Engineer

Conducts fundamental research on brain-inspired world models and AGI architectures, designing experiments on cognition, causal representations, and unsupervised learning. Collaborates with neuroscientists and engineers; requires PhD-level expertise in deep learning frameworks like PyTorch/JAX.

150k – 300kEmeryville, CAAI ResearchHybridJAXPyTorch
Astera

Research Scientist: Energy Based Models

Conducts fundamental research on neuroscience-inspired energy-based models and hierarchical latent variable models for AGI. Designs experiments on cognition and collaborates cross-functionally to build scalable systems. Requires PhD-level expertise in deep learning and PyTorch/JAX.

150k – 300kEmeryville, CAAI ResearchHybridJAXPyTorch
Astera

Research Scientist - Simplex

Develops theories of intelligence grounded in neural network internal structures, focusing on belief geometries in LLMs and biological brains. Conducts experiments bridging mathematics, ML interpretability, and safety research; requires PhD-level quantitative depth and hands-on coding.

140k – 200kEmeryville, CAAI ResearchOn-sitePyTorchProbability
Astera

Site Reliability Engineer

Owns digital infrastructure for AI research, managing compute access, auto-scaling, resource visibility, and reproducibility using Kubernetes and observability tools. Requires systems intuition, operational rigor, and pragmatism for experimental workloads.

100k – 300kEmeryville, CADevOps / SREHybridDockerPython
Astera

Staff Software Engineer

Staff Software Engineer architects high-performance infrastructure for large-scale Neuro-AI models and simulations, optimizes RL environments informed by neuroscience, and scales research prototypes to production while resolving technical bottlenecks.

200k – 500kEmeryville, CABackend EngineeringHybridJAXPython
Astera

Senior Software Engineer

Builds high-performance infrastructure for brain reverse-engineering via large-scale AI models and neuroscience-informed simulations. Architects systems, optimizes RL environments, and scales research prototypes to production.

100k – 400kEmeryville, CAML EngineeringHybridPythonRL Environments
Astera

Principal Software Engineer

Architects high-performance infrastructure for training large-scale neuroscience-informed AI models and RL environments. Optimizes code, resolves critical bottlenecks, and scales research prototypes to production systems.

300k – 600kEmeryville, CABackend EngineeringOn-sitePythonRL Environments
Astera

The Stacks Product Manager

Leads vision, strategy, and execution for The Stacks, an open-access platform for scientific knowledge. Translates user needs into roadmaps, collaborates with engineering/design, conducts research, and ensures high usability. Requires 4-7+ years PM experience in content/research tools and technical fluency.

200k – 300kEmeryville, CAProduct ManagementOn-site4+ YOEUser StoriesWeb Products