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Principal Software Engineer

Astera Institute· Foundation
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Emeryville HQ$300k - $600kFull-timePosted 8mo ago

About the role

Staff Software Engineer role focused on reverse-engineering the human brain, designing high-performance infrastructure for large-scale model training and simulations, developing neuroscience-informed RL environments, and turning research prototypes into scalable production systems.

Responsibilities

  • 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 organizational standard for clean, fast, production-grade code that boosts research velocity.
  • Turn research prototypes into scalable production systems.
  • Identify and resolve critical and ambiguous technical bottlenecks, from low-level optimization to high-level strategy, to unblock the research team.

Qualifications

  • High-Velocity Craftsmanship: clean, maintainable, and well-tested code at startup pace; balance engineering rigor with rapid iteration on research prototypes.
  • System Architecture Intuition: proven success architecting complex systems from scratch; design infrastructure that survives the chaos of research.
  • Extreme Adaptability: ability to dive into complex domains (e.g., neuroscience) and guide others; fast-learning in new areas.
  • Mastery of Hard Problems: track record of leading resolution of difficult engineering challenges, including massive-scale distributed systems or kernel-level optimization.

Skills

Required:Software architectureDistributed systemsPerformance optimizationResearch-to-production transition
Last updated Sep 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Astera Institute

The future, faster.

We empower visionary, high-leverage science and technology projects with the capacity to create transformative progress for human civilization.

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