# Research Scientist, Multiregional Electrophysiology of Working Memory

**Company:** [Astera](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/astera)
**Location:** Unspecified
**Role:** AI Research
**Salary:** $125k – $175k/yr
**Experience:** 0+ years
**Skills:** Neuroscience, Mouse Surgery, Stereotaxic Injection, Neuropixels, Electrophysiology, Two-Photon Imaging, Optogenetics, Python, MATLAB, Kilosort, Spikeglx, Population Decoding, Generalized Linear Models, Chrmine, Gcamp
**Posted:** 2026-08-25

> Leads experiments investigating working-memory circuits in behaving mice through multiregional Neuropixels recordings, optical perturbation, and large-scale neural-data analysis. Requires PhD-level neuroscience training, mouse survival surgery, awake-rodent electrophysiology, and Python or MATLAB expertise.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Design and iterate a head-fixed mouse working-memory task and establish reliable behavioral performance.
- Perform high-density, multiregional electrophysiology using Neuropixels probes in awake, behaving rodents.
- Combine electrophysiology with two-photon imaging and holographic photostimulation to test causal effects on held representations.
- Lead analysis of large-scale neural population data, including spike sorting, dimensionality reduction, population decoding, generalized linear models, and inter-areal circuit inference.
- Set viral and transgenic expression strategies, including soma-targeted ChRmine and GCaMP.
- Perform mouse survival surgery, including stereotaxic viral injections, headbar installation, chronic cranial-window implantation, recording craniotomies, and chronic implants.
- Mentor research associates and technicians and contribute to hiring, onboarding, and lab culture.
- Contribute to publications, talks, open data and tooling releases, and scientific-community engagement.

## Requirements
- PhD with 0–4 years of experience in neuroscience, bioengineering, physics, or a related field, or equivalent research experience.
- Hands-on mouse survival surgery experience, including stereotaxic injections, headbars, chronic cranial windows, and craniotomies.
- Experience with in vivo extracellular electrophysiology in awake, behaving rodents, including high-density silicon probes such as Neuropixels.
- Scientific computing proficiency for neural-data analysis in Python and/or MATLAB.
- Experience with Kilosort, SpikeGLX, or comparable analysis pipelines.
- Experience training head-fixed rodents on behavioral tasks.

## Nice-to-haves
- Experience combining electrophysiology with two-photon calcium imaging, optogenetics, or SLM-based holographic photostimulation.
- Multi-area or brain-wide recording experience and analysis of inter-areal interactions and effective connectivity.
- Systems neuroscience research experience in cortex, working memory, decision-making, or motor and premotor circuits.
- Familiarity with viral tools and transgenic mouse lines for targeted recording and manipulation, including soma-targeted opsins such as ChRmine.

## Compensation and Benefits
- Competitive total compensation commensurate with experience and qualifications.
- Comprehensive benefits package.

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