Staff Software Engineer
At a glance
Senior Engineering Leadership role at Astera Institute. Emerybille · full-time · $200,000–$500,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Architect fast infrastructure for training large models and running demanding simulations
- Build and tune custom reinforcement-learning environments using neuroscience insights
- Turn research prototypes into production systems that can scale
- Set coding standards and remove technical blockers, from low-level performance work to broader engineering decisions
What you bring
- You have built complex systems from the ground up and can weigh their long-term design trade-offs
- You write clean, maintainable, well-tested code while moving quickly through research iterations
- You have led tough engineering work, including large distributed systems or kernel-level optimization
Who this fits
This role suits a senior engineer who can move between deep technical problem-solving, system design and unfamiliar research areas. It is an in-person role in Emeryville, California. Visa sponsorship may be available for qualified candidates.
From the employer
About Astera
Astera 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.
Position Summary
We are looking for an ambitious Staff Software Engineer to help us reverse-engineer the human brain.
This role spans a broad spectrum of activities:
Define and architect high-performance infrastructure for training large-scale models and running complex simulations.
Design and optimize custom RL environments informed by neuroscience.
Set the standard for clean, fast, production-grade code that boosts our research velocity.
Turn research prototypes into scalable production systems.
Tackle systemic technical bottlenecks, from low-level optimization to high-level strategy, to unblock the research team.
Qualifications
High-Velocity Craftsmanship: You set the bar for clean, maintainable, and well-tested code at a startup pace. You know how to balance engineering rigor with the need to iterate quickly on research prototypes.
System Architecture Intuition: You have proven success architecting complex systems from scratch. You understand the long-term trade-offs, and you can design infrastructure that survives the chaos of research.
Extreme Adaptability: You might be an expert in distributed systems today, but you are ready to become a novice in neuroscience tomorrow. You have a track record of diving into complex domains, mastering them quickly, and guiding others through them.
Mastery of Hard Problems: You have a track record of leading the resolution of difficult engineering challenges, whether it is massive scale distributed systems or kernel-level optimization. You do not shy away from what your peers consider hardcore.
Location & Visa
This role is in-person in Emeryville, CA.
Visa sponsorship may be available for qualified candidates.
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