Primate Behavior Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Company Overview
Astera Neuro is a philanthropically funded research organization within the Astera Institute, working to decipher and ultimately write the neural codes underlying perception, thought, behavior, and internal state. The tools this requires do not yet exist. We are assembling a founding team of experimental neuroscientists, computational scientists, and engineers to build them, from recording and interface hardware to software and computational methods, and to use them to study neural activity at unprecedented scale, with direct promise for treating neurological and psychiatric disease. We pursue high-risk, high-reward science in a collaborative, well-resourced environment and share our tools, data, and discoveries openly under Astera's Open Science Policy.
Position Summary
This role focuses on what is most distinctively human about the brain: language, mathematics, and the ability to build and manipulate abstract thoughts. Astera Neuro is building a human neuroscience initiative to collect, process, and analyze intracranial data at scale, and we are hiring human neuroscientists to lead this program. You will conduct large-scale studies of the compositional representations underlying language, mathematics, perception, and working memory in neurosurgical patients at the single-neuron level, in close collaboration with partner sites around the world.
This role is the human-side complement to Astera Neuro's primate program. You will design and implement intracranial cognitive tasks suitable for wide deployment, translate primate paradigms into compatible human studies, analyze single-neuron and population recordings from the human brain, and coordinate with clinical collaborators around the world. The work runs end to end, from conception, paradigm design, data acquisition, and preprocessing through analysis, publication, and curated open science data releases. It depends on strong scientific judgment, deep knowledge of the scientific literature, careful experimental discipline, a sense for what is feasible in the human space, and genuine collaboration with outside teams.
We are hiring at multiple levels for this role. At the Scientist level, you will lead well-defined studies with regular guidance. At the Senior Scientist level, you will own research lines end to end and manage clinical partnerships. At the Principal Scientist level, you will define the human research roadmap, mentor scientists, and shape how Astera's human and animal programs fit together. Title and scope are calibrated to your experience.
What You Will Do

• Lead the design, implementation, and deployment of intracranial cognitive paradigms covering language, syntax, semantic learning, mathematical reasoning, perception, and working memory.
• Translate primate paradigms into compatible human studies, in close coordination with experimental and computational teams.
• Process and analyze single-neuron, multi-unit, and local field potential recordings from the human brain (sEEG, ECoG, microelectrode arrays).
• Implement advanced computational cognitive neuroscience methods suited to these large-scale datasets, in close coordination with the Astera AI team.
• Coordinate and manage clinical partners around the world, including study setup, data collection visits, and ongoing scientific collaboration.
• Own IRB and regulatory documentation, data-sharing agreements, and cross-site protocol harmonization.

Who You Are
Required:

• Hands-on experience with human intracranial electrophysiology (single neuron, sEEG, ECoG, Utah array, or comparable) (expected at the senior or principal level).
• Track record, demonstrated by first-author publications, of conducting high-quality science with human intracranial electrophysiology, ideally at the single-neuron level (expected at the senior or principal level).
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement cognitive paradigms in clinical research populations (expected at the senior or principal level).
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills, with fluency in Python and/or MATLAB (expected at the senior or principal level).
• Strong understanding of advanced concepts used for population-level analysis of representations of cognitive variables, either in real neurons or neural networks (expected at the senior or principal level).
• Comfort building on shared infrastructure rather than private projects. Paradigms, preprocessing, and analysis will be standardized so that recordings from different patients, sessions, and sites can be combined, and so that human and primate results can be compared directly. This means designing studies others can build on, and building on theirs.
• Stewardship of clinical partnerships. Our access to the human brain rests on the trust of patients, surgeons, and neurosurgical monitoring teams. We are looking for someone who can earn the trust of these vital partners through clear communication and real presence at partner sites.
• Resourcefulness and ability to self-direct. You scope out what needs to be done, identify the right collaborators, and move forward.
• Commitment to open science. We will release tools, data, and methods, and we aim to create a new dynamic of rapid, open exchange in neuroscience.

Preferred/Nice to Have:

• Experience managing multi-site clinical research, including IRB submissions and protocol standardization (expected at the senior or principal level).
• History of successful mentorship of scientists or leading clinical research initiatives (expected at the principal level).
• Strong combined AI and neuroscience background that strengthens the interface between the neuroscience and AI sides of Astera.
• Background in the cognitive neuroscience of language, syntax, semantic processing, working memory, or mathematical cognition.
• Existing collaborations with neurosurgical sites.
• Experience translating paradigms across species (rodent / primate / human).
• Working proficiency in Mandarin or a major European language, given our international site network.

Education

• A PhD or MD/PhD is expected for this role. Backgrounds in engineering, computational neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, or related fields are all welcome. We value demonstrated skill and relevant experience above credentials.

Compensation
The posted salary range is based on location in the Bay Area. The successful candidate will receive a competitive compensation package, including comprehensive benefits, commensurate with their experience.
Why Join Us
You will lead a program with access to human intracranial data at a scale few institutions in the world can offer, tightly coupled to a primate program mapping the same questions. Our clinical partnerships rest on the trust of patients, surgeons, and monitoring teams, and we hold the work to the highest ethical and regulatory standards. If you want to investigate what is distinctively human about the brain at single-neuron resolution, let's talk.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity and inclusion.