Research Scientist, Theory & Computation

Company Overview Astera Neuro seeks to understand and engineer consciousness. We believe consciousness is the process by which the brain builds a coherent internal model of the world and the self. We aim to understand this model and to develop the technologies to write experience directly into the brain. By combining large-scale neural recording, causal perturbation, and brain-based AI, we seek to move neuroscience from observing correlates of experience to engineering it. The same tools carry direct therapeutic promise for neurological and psychiatric diseases that alter perception, thought, and sense of self. Because the science and tools required do not yet exist, we are assembling a founding team of neuroscientists, theorists, and engineers to create them. We do high-risk, high-reward science in a well-resourced, collaborative environment with competitive pay, and share everything openly under Astera's Open Science Policy. Position Summary Research Scientists in Theory & Computation at Astera Neuro develop and lead research programs aimed at understanding the representations and dynamics underlying conscious access, and at converting that understanding into the ability to steer the system. The work sits at the intersection of cognitive theory, large-scale neural data, and machine learning, and draws on recordings from our primate, rodent, and human programs. The opportunity here is to create an entirely new theoretical framework for how the brain builds an internal model of the world, on data of a scale, breadth, and quality that has not previously existed. Computation sits at the vital core of Astera Neuro. The role is built around tight coupling with experiment; models are expected to make testable predictions, and to propose the next experiment rather than wait for it. Title and scope are calibrated to track record. Successful applicants will focus on one or more of Astera Neuro’s primary research tracks, with background and interest helping determine the best fit. Some positions suit scientists with a bent for modeling large-scale neural data, extracting structure from recordings that span many areas, sessions, animals, and species. Others suit scientists with a more theoretical bent, concerned with abstracting the key computational principles out of the data and into new NeuroAI architectures. We welcome computational scientists trained outside neuroscience; backgrounds in control theory, robotics, theoretical physics, statistics, and machine learning are all highly valued here. What You’ll Do Build models of compositional neural representation, grounded in cognitive theory and fit to recordings: how the brain binds content to variables, composes structured thought, and updates it. Build coupled dynamical-systems models of the interactions between multiple brain areas, and test them against simultaneous multi-area recordings. Analyze the fixed-point structure of these systems and characterize the landscape of stable states underlying percepts, thoughts, and internal states. Derive how to sculpt inputs, using our optogenetic and electrical stimulation technology, to drive the system to chosen stable points, and validate those derivations in closed-loop write-in experiments. Stitch data together across subjects and species into foundation models of neural activity, registered onto a common whole-brain functional and anatomical atlas. Propose and help design new experiments: identify the measurement or perturbation that would most sharply separate competing models, and work with the experimental teams to run it. Abstract key computational principles from the data into new NeuroAI architectures, in some cases in direct collaboration with Astera AI. Mentor research engineers and, at the senior or principal level, more junior scientists; contribute to hiring, onboarding, and lab culture. Contribute to publications, talks, open data and tooling releases, and engagement with the broader scientific community. Who You Are Requi