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Precision Instrumentation Control & Estimation Consultant

Astera Institute· Foundation
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Emeryville HQ$175/hr - $225/hrContractPosted 2mo ago

About the role

The Astera Institute seeks a Controls & Systems-Design Consultant to shape the control-system architecture and requirements of the Gen-1 DNA-origami electrostatic actuator, ensuring observability and controllability from the outset. This is an early, fractional contract engagement reporting to Dr. Jeremy Barton.

Responsibilities

  • Define the control-system requirements and constraints for the DNA Origami actuator–sensor system — sensor bandwidth, noise floor, and latency; actuator drive-signal range and dynamics; and end-to-end observability — and feed them into the device-physics and DNA-origami design decisions early.
  • Review the field-effect (FET) position-sensor and electrostatic drive-stack designs through a controls lens, flagging choices that would make the system hard to stabilize, identify, or estimate.
  • Specify what the early ensemble and single-molecule experiments must log (sampling, excitation, metadata) so the data is usable for later system identification and ML modeling of the device response.
  • Sketch the closed-loop control architecture and a simulation/estimation plan (feedback stabilization, averaging, observers) that the incoming full-time Controls engineer will implement.
  • Provide a clean, documented handoff to the team.

Qualifications

  • PhD or MS (or equivalent industry depth) in controls, robotics, electrical engineering, or a related field, with hands-on closed-loop control-system design.
  • Track record translating plant and sensor characteristics into design constraints, ideally for noisy, nanoscale, or precision-instrumentation systems.
  • Strength in system identification and estimation (Kalman filters / observers) and in specifying data capture for later modeling.
  • Comfort advising a physics and wet-lab team fractionally, with occasional on-site collaboration in Emeryville.

Skills

Required:Control-system designSystem identification and estimation
Nice to have:Cross-disciplinary advisory
Last updated Sep 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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