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Director Neuroscience Startup Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Study Start-Up Associate II

Rockville, MD · On-site

$34.25 - $46.75/hr

... neuroscience. We believe the work we do will have a direct impact on patients' lives and act ... Primary Purpose As part of Emmes' centralized Site and Patient Access group, the Study Startup ...

Study Start-Up Associate II

Rockville, MD · On-site +1

$34.25 - $46.75/hr

... neuroscience. We believe the work we do will have a direct impact on patients' lives and act ... Primary Purpose As part of Emmes' centralized Site and Patient Access group, the Study Startup ...

Develop and implement new architectures and learning algorithms for neuroscience-based world models ... Startup DNA: Ability to thrive in a lean, fast-paced environment where you have high autonomy and a ...

$150K - $300K/yr

Develop and implement new architectures and learning algorithms for neuroscience-based world models ... Startup DNA: Ability to thrive in a lean, fast-paced environment where you have high autonomy and a ...

$150K - $300K/yr

Develop and implement new architectures and learning/inference algorithms for neuroscience-inspired ... Startup DNA: Ability to thrive in a lean, fast-paced environment where you have high autonomy and a ...

... interface (BCI) startup spun out of the University of Michigan's Direct to Brain Interface ... neuroscience, enables people to control hardware and software in real-time with their brain via a ...

... interface (BCI) startup spun out of the University of Michigan's Direct to Brain Interface ... neuroscience, enables people to control hardware and software in real-time with their brain via a ...

Showing results 21-40

Director Neuroscience Startup information

What does a director at a neuroscience startup do?

A Director at a neuroscience startup is responsible for overseeing the company's strategic direction, managing research and development projects, and leading teams of scientists and professionals. They play a key role in shaping the startup’s vision, securing funding, and building partnerships with academic and industry stakeholders. Additionally, they ensure that the company’s scientific goals align with business objectives and regulatory requirements. Their leadership is crucial for driving innovation and bringing neuroscience-based products or therapies to market.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a director at a neuroscience startup?

To thrive as a Director at a Neuroscience Startup, you need extensive expertise in neuroscience or a related field, strong leadership experience, and often an advanced degree such as a PhD or MBA. Familiarity with data analysis tools, neuroimaging software, and regulatory compliance systems, as well as knowledge of startup operations and funding processes, is crucial. Exceptional strategic thinking, adaptability, and communication skills set top candidates apart by enabling them to lead teams, build partnerships, and drive innovation. These skills are vital for navigating the complex scientific, business, and regulatory landscape required to bring neuroscience breakthroughs to market.

What are the main challenges a director at a neuroscience startup typically faces when building and leading a multidisciplinary team?

As a Director at a Neuroscience Startup, one of the main challenges is effectively integrating expertise from diverse fields such as neuroscience, engineering, data science, and regulatory affairs. Aligning these varied perspectives to drive innovation and meet business goals can be complex. Additionally, balancing fast-paced development with the need for rigorous scientific validation and regulatory compliance is demanding. Directors often need to foster open communication, build a collaborative culture, and ensure that all team members are aligned with the startup's mission and timelines.

What is the difference between Director Neuroscience Startup vs Neuroscience Research Scientist?

AspectDirector Neuroscience StartupNeuroscience Research Scientist
CredentialsAdvanced degrees (PhD, MD), leadership experiencePhD or equivalent in neuroscience or related field
Work EnvironmentStartup setting, leadership role, cross-functional teamsResearch labs, academic or industry settings
Employer & Industry UsageBiotech startups, pharmaceutical companies, innovation-driven firmsUniversities, research institutes, industry R&D
Search & Comparison IntentLeadership, strategy, startup managementResearch, scientific expertise, laboratory work

The main difference is that a Director Neuroscience Startup focuses on leading and managing neuroscience projects within a startup environment, emphasizing strategy and leadership. In contrast, a Neuroscience Research Scientist primarily conducts scientific research and experiments, often within academic or industry labs. Both roles require advanced degrees, but their responsibilities and work settings differ significantly.

More about Director Neuroscience Startup jobs

What cities are hiring for Director Neuroscience Startup jobs?

Cities with the most Director Neuroscience Startup job openings:

What are the most commonly searched types of Neuroscience Startup jobs?

The most popular types of Neuroscience Startup jobs are:

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States with the most job openings for Director Neuroscience Startup jobs include:

What are popular job titles related to Director Neuroscience Startup jobs?

For Director Neuroscience Startup jobs, the most frequently searched job titles are:

Infographic showing various Director Neuroscience Startup job openings in the United States as of September 2026, with employment types broken down into 2% As Needed, 85% Full Time, 12% Part Time, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 89% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 8% Remote job distribution.

Head of Clinical Science

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$210K - $320K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 11 days ago


Job description

About Arbor Neuroscience 

(formerly Forest Neurotech)

Arbor is a nonprofit research organization working on one of the hardest open problems in clinical neuroscience: how to change brain circuits by design.

Millions of people with depression, chronic pain, and other brain disorders have no treatment that works. Modulating activity in the brain circuits underlying their symptoms – with electrical stimulation, focused ultrasound, or magnetic stimulation – can work spectacularly well. But it doesn't work reliably, and we can't predict who it will help.

That's what Arbor aims to fix. The starting point is a new class of experiment: intervene, measure how the circuit responds, track the symptom, and repeat in the same individual over months. We’re building the necessary experimental platform. It currently includes the Forest 1 ultrasound system, which works like a wearable functional MRI, but with higher resolution. The system images activity across large brain volumes, including deep brain structures, and will soon stimulate as well. We are also adding electrode-based interfaces in animal studies. From these data, we'll build models to make neuromodulation predictable.

Arbor is a Focused Research Organization within the Convergent Research family, and the new name for Forest Neurotech. We're a mission-focused nonprofit, doing multidisciplinary translational work that doesn't fit in a lab or on a company roadmap. We have the funding to run the first phase, and we're a small team – the people we hire now will shape what Arbor becomes.

The Role

This is a broad role, and a foundational one for the organization. We're looking for someone to lead how Arbor approaches applied human neuroscience and how we think about clinical impact: which conditions we work on, which symptoms we try to move, and what it would mean to succeed. 

The initial focus will be on defining and expanding our human neuroscience program – building from a small intramural program and an active UK collaboration with ARIA. The studies will start with functional ultrasound imaging, later paired with focused ultrasound neuromodulation. 

Participants are people with a sonolucent cranial implant, usually placed after surgery for traumatic brain injury, stroke, or a tumor. These individuals often have comorbid conditions that neuromodulation may be able to improve. Designing this program is both a scientific and clinical challenge. The circuits to study, interventions to try, and physiological and behavioral readouts to monitor should all advance our long-term mission while providing something useful for the people who take part. You'd be leading that thinking, alongside the CEO and the rest of the scientific team.  

The role reaches beyond that program. Arbor also runs preclinical animal work, builds research platforms, and is starting a larger modeling effort. You'd be part of the small group making decisions about all of it, and the person thinking hardest about how this science reaches patients. You'd also be central to our work with external collaborators, especially clinical ones: finding the right partners, deciding which collaborations are most important for our mission.

We’re also still a small, startup-like organization, so everyone fills multiple roles, including hands-on science and the work that gets science done.

In your first six months, you would develop a plan for the human research program, make sure the infrastructure is in place to support it, and begin ramping up recruitment. You'd also have established new external relationships, including clinical sites and access to datasets. Our goal is to be analyzing longitudinal, interventional human circuit data by the end of the year.

Note: We're also hiring a Human Neuroscientist [link], a more focused role running our human studies. If both sound like you, apply to either and tell us.


What You’ll Do
  • Lead Arbor's thinking on clinical scientific direction: which diseases and symptom dimensions we pursue, and why

  • Lead the scientific design of the human program — targets, tasks, stimulation strategy, outcome measures

  • Run human studies, hands-on, alongside our scientific and clinical staff

  • Interpret results, with our analysis lead and computational collaborators

  • Build and evaluate external partnerships with clinical teams, and set priorities among them

  • Advise the animal and modeling programs on clinical relevance

  • Assess groups who want to use our platforms, and help decide where those collaborations go

  • Write white papers, journal articles, and the materials that support fundraising

  • Hire and build the human science team as the program grows

Who We’re Looking For

An accomplished clinician-scientist or clinically oriented neuroscientist with a substantial independent research record. 

You should understand psychiatric or neurological dysfunction from a circuits perspective, with the clinical grounding to know the patient populations involved.

You might be a psychiatrist or another clinician, in which case we can protect time for practice. But an MD isn't required – a PhD with deep clinical research experience is just as welcome.

The successful candidate will have:

  • Considered views about how translational neuroscience can be most effective

  • A strong network of clinician and researcher colleagues

  • Cross-disciplinary breadth across areas such as neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, imaging, clinical assessment, and clinical practice

  • Experience running human studies end to end

  • Directness without friction – you say what you think, ask when you don't know, and aren't looking to compete with your colleagues

Nice to have: experience with focused ultrasound, functional ultrasound, DBS, or TMS; transdiagnostic and dimensional approaches to psychiatric symptoms; work with large multimodal imaging datasets; IRB and regulatory experience.


Compensation is benchmarked and leveled. If you don't fit a level, we find one that works.

Our benefits include:

  • Medical, dental, and vision – most plans fully covered for you and your dependents

  • 401(k) with up to 6% match

  • Company-paid life and AD&D, with voluntary supplemental options

  • 15 holidays plus a floating day for your birthday

  • 3 weeks PTO increasing with tenure, and separate sick leave

Arbor will consider sponsorship for U.S. work authorization case by case. Sponsorship isn't guaranteed, and immigration timelines can affect start dates. Where we sponsor, we cover the legal and government fees.

Arbor is an equal opportunity employer. We hire based on talent and experience and don't discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.