General Application at Afference Inc (Boulder, CO)

Afference Inc· Boulder, CO·6d ago

Role details

Work type

Hybrid

Employment

Full-Time

Summary

Afference invites general applications from curious and thoughtful individuals interested in future opportunities. Candidates should submit a resume and a note outlining their passion, expertise, and potential contributions to the company.

Job description

Thank you for your interest in Afference!

We genuinely love hearing from thoughtful, curious people who are excited about building meaningful technology. Even if there isn’t a specific role posted on our website that matches your background right now, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a future fit. If what we’re building at Afference resonates with you, we’d love to explore how your ideas and energy could help shape what comes next.

If you’re interested in future opportunities with us, please send us your resume along with a short note about what you’re passionate about, your area of expertise, and how you see yourself contributing. Our team reviews all submissions and will reach out if a suitable opportunity arises.

We appreciate your interest in joining us and look forward to learning more about you.

Why work at Afference Inc

Culture: Science-first, evidence-based decision-making, long-horizon thinking. The team includes PhD researchers, neural engineers, and experienced hardware/software engineers.
Work environment: Hybrid policy – up to 2 days/week flexible work from home, with meaningful time in labs (Cleveland) or collaborative office (Boulder).
Locations: Two hubs in innovation-friendly US cities: Cleveland, OH (manufacturing & R&D) and Boulder, CO (business & product).
Benefits: Competitive salary, dental, 401k, life insurance, self-managed PTO.
Engineering culture: Grounded in decades of neural interface research; opportunity to bring a novel haptic chip from prototype to mass production; work shaping the future of human-AI interaction.

About Afference Inc

Company Overview

One-liner: Afference builds wearable neural interfaces using neural haptics to create artificial touch for digital interactions, enabling users to feel sensations from a ring-sized chip.
Entity Type: Private (Series A – venture round of $15.3M closed December 2025)
Headquarters: Boulder, Colorado, United States (with additional hub in Cleveland, Ohio)
Founded: 2022
Founders: Jacob Segil (CEO) and Dustin Tyler (CTO)

Core Business

Primary industries: Computers and Electronics Manufacturing, Neural Interfaces, Wearables, Haptics
Target customers: B2B – Consumer electronics OEMs and big tech companies; B2C – Early adopters of the Afference Ring reference design
Mission: To reimagine how humans connect by allowing people at a distance to feel the depth of connection that comes from combining sight, sound, and touch.

Products & Services

Afference Ring: A reference design for wearable neural haptics. It is a chip-scale actuator that creates sensations (tingling/buzzing) on the finger and hand without covering the skin, using 5-7x less power than other haptics. Connects via Bluetooth.
Phantom Platform: The underlying neural interface platform (previously called Phantom) that converts digital signals into artificial touch sensations. Enables “referred sensation” – feeling the wearable’s effect away from the device.
Phantom Technology Licensing: Afference’s neural haptics actuator is designed for integration into third-party wearables (rings, watches, surgical robots, teleoperation systems, military radios, etc.).

Market Standing

Valuation: Not publicly disclosed
Key Metric (Funding): Total funding of $20.55M across four rounds (Pre-Seed $1.5M in Sep 2023, Seed $3.5M in Oct 2024, Grant $200K in Apr 2024, Venture Round $15.3M in Dec 2025)
Notable Investors/Partners: Hannah Grey VC, Konvoy, Samsung Next, Ohio Third Frontier (grant). Also partners with “many of the biggest consumer electronic OEMs and Big Tech companies.”
Growth Signals: Employee headcount of 19 with +10% monthly growth; awarded CES 2024 Best of Innovation Award; 40+ patents; founders have a track record of 3 exits and $250M in revenue across 10 product lines.

Competitive Advantages

Proprietary neural haptics technology: Solid-state actuator with no moving parts, chip-scale size, ultra-low power consumption (5-7x less than other haptics).
Referred sensation: Creates feeling away from the wearable, a phenomenon unique to Afference.
Deep research roots: Founders are world experts in neural interfaces (publications in Nature and Science); Dustin Tyler is a National Academy of Inventors member and chaired professor at Case Western Reserve University.
Patent portfolio: 40+ patents covering medical-grade neuromodulation methods adapted for consumer wearables.

Strategic Focus

Current priorities include scaling the microchip from benchtop science to production with consumer OEMs, deploying artificial touch into AI-powered wearables, and building the sensory layer of AI for the next decade.
Dual-location strategy: Cleveland hub for R&D and manufacturing (leveraging local engineering and manufacturing expertise), Boulder hub for business development, product, and marketing.

Sources

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Job description

Why work at Afference Inc

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