{"id":28658,"url":"https://alion.io/job/asterainstitute-research-scientistengineer","title":"Research Scientist/Engineer","company":{"id":7738,"name":"Astera Institute","domain":"asterainstitute.org","url":"https://alion.io/company/asterainstitute","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":88,"open_postings":40,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.275,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":80,"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"}},"role":"Data Science","role_family":"Data Science","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Emeryville, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":300000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":300000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"JAX","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"World Models","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-02-25T02:26:59Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-02-25","last_verified_at":"2026-11-02T07:17:28Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":250,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":250},"description":"About Astera\nAstera is a private foundation on a mission to steer science and technology toward a better future. We believe the coming years will bring an era of unprecedented scientific and technological advancement as exponential progress in AI converges with central advances in other fields to accelerate innovation. This inflection point provides an unparalleled opportunity to fundamentally rethink the institutions, systems, and tools that drive progress. We have committed a $3.5B endowment to that work and fit the form of our support to the function it serves: grants, investments, and in-house research programs. We accept meaningful risk in the research we back and expect some of it to fail because transformative ideas are rarely the ones already proven. Our projects, and the foundation itself, operate like high-velocity startups, with a high performance bar and competitive compensation to match. We are searching for leaders who are compelled by the challenge of driving high-impact change in the way science is funded, conducted, and communicated. You can read more about our mission, vision, and programming at astera.org/vision.\nPosition Summary\nWe are seeking brilliant, unconventional thinkers to join us. In this role, you will not be chasing incremental gains on standard benchmarks. Instead, you will be tasked with developing the foundational principles of Artificial General Intelligence. We believe that understanding the \"code of the brain\" is the most viable path to building truly intelligent machines, and we are looking for scientists who can bridge the gap between biological intelligence, computational theory, and building at scale.\nCore Responsibilities\nFundamental research on brain-like world models: Develop and implement new architectures and learning algorithms for neuroscience-based world models. You will draw up on insights from deep learning, causality, probabilistic and energy based models, and biologically inspired architectures.\n\nScientific Discovery: Design experiments to test hypotheses regarding high-level cognition, causal representations, sensory-motor integration, active inference, and unsupervised learning.\n\nCross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Work alongside neuroscientists and software engineers to translate abstract mathematical frameworks into scalable systems.\n\nContribute to open science: Help innovate new publication models that incentivize speedy dissemination, open source code releases, free open access, and impact measurements based on uptake.\n\nDesired Qualifications\nTechnical Depth: Preferred: PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Neuroscience, Physics, or a related quantitative field. We are always open to considering exceptional candidates, even those with non-traditional educational histories.\n\nTheoretical Rigor: Strong foundations in deep learning, graphical models, and information theory.\n\nCoding Proficiency: Expert-level skills in deep learning frameworks (PyTorch/JAX), with a focus on clean, reproducible research code.\n\nAGI Mindset: A demonstrated interest in the \"big questions\" of AI-robustness, generalization, and common-sense reasoning.\n\nCurious about the brain: A genuine passion for exploring the computational and architectural principles of the mammalian brain.\n\nStartup DNA: Ability to thrive in a lean, fast-paced environment where you have high autonomy and a direct influence on research direction.\n\nWhy Join Us?\nWe recognize the need for fundamental research: No pressure to align research with quarterly revenue goals, market competition, or product roadmaps. We can focus on solving the core problems and achieving breakthroughs that enable the next generation of AGI technology.\n\nMission-First: Your work contributes directly to the global pool of knowledge and the safe development of AGI.\n\nCollaborative culture: We work in teams, organized around challenge problems and attack paths, without big-company inertia or politics.\n\nCompensation\nThe posted salary range is based on location in the Bay Area. The successful candidate will receive a competitive compensation package, commensurate with their experience and location.\nBenefits summary","description_format":"text","description_chars":4165,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["AI Research Labs","Nonprofits & Foundations","Research Institutes"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-02-25T02:26:59Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":11,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.396,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":250,"expected_fill_days":80,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":300000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/asterainstitute-research-scientistengineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/asterainstitute-research-scientistengineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-02T11:42:34Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":16046,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-03T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":7738},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=7738"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fasterainstitute-research-scientistengineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fasterainstitute-research-scientistengineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fasterainstitute-research-scientistengineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/asterainstitute-research-scientistengineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fasterainstitute-research-scientistengineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":28658}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"asterainstitute.org","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":28658},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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