---
title: 'Principal AI Scientist (Polytope Bio) at Astera Institute'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-ai-scientist-polytope-bio-astera-institute-remote-5wqeq3z45wdk'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-15'
---

# Principal AI Scientist (Polytope Bio) at Astera Institute

- **Company:** Astera Institute
- **Location:** Remote
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-08-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-15
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/astera/387a65a4-5b77-49df-b6ca-58c07d01f925

## Job description

About Astera: Astera is a private foundation on a mission to steer science and technology toward an abundant future. We believe the coming years will bring an era of unprecedented scientific and technological advancement as exponential progress in AI converges with central advances in other fields to dramatically accelerate innovation. This inflection point provides an unparalleled opportunity to fundamentally rethink the institutions, systems, and tools that drive scientific progress. Unlike traditional non-profit research organizations, projects supported by Astera operate like high-velocity startups, allowing us to focus on ambitious goals, match structure to problem, and attract strong technical talent and leadership. You can read more about our mission, vision, and programming [here](https://astera.org/vision/).

Position Summary Today's frontier biological AI models are trained almost entirely on static, pre-existing data. They are powerful pattern matchers, but lack feedback from real biology. Polytope Bio is a residency project at Astera that is building the missing piece: a post-training engine that closes the loop between frontier AI models and high-throughput biology. Our work will power new applications in generative biology by aligning frontier AI models directly to experimental measurements of what actually folds, binds, and functions. We are looking for a Principal AI Scientist to help launch our AI research program. You will be joining at the point of maximum leverage: early enough to shape the scientific direction, the modeling approaches, and the training strategy. The project is resourced with significant compute, financial runway, and the ability to generate large-scale prospective biological datasets. The researcher in this role will work hands-on to develop and publish new reinforcement learning methods and bio AI models leveraging datasets created by our unique high-throughput biology platform. Longer-term, we are seeking a candidate who is driven by the prospect of growing their leadership of the AI research program. While our immediate focus is on collaborative research strategy and execution, the candidate will have the potential to develop into a co-founding leadership position in the event of a successful spinout.

Responsibilities:

- Co-direct the research program: Partner directly with the founder to shape the scientific vision, research direction, and technical execution.
- Develop RL feedback loop: Design, implement, and improve model post-training methods that translate high-throughput biological measurements into direct reward signals for biological language models.
- Hands-on engineering: You will work directly with the technical founder to architect model training infrastructure and build, run, and debug models, training loops, and evaluation metrics.
- Bridge wet/dry lab: Partner with the experimental team to ensure that what we measure in the lab and what the models learn are designed as a single, cohesive system.

## Qualifications and Experience

- Research Experience: PhD in machine learning, computational biology, or a related field with a minimum of 2 to 5 years of industry research experience post-PhD (accomplished researchers without a PhD are also encouraged to apply).
- Model Training: You have trained models from scratch, not just fine-tuned or called APIs. You have owned real training runs, know where they break, and know how to debug them.
- Modern Algorithms: Hands-on experience with generative diffusion models and/or transformer architectures.
- Reinforcement Learning: Deep familiarity with modern reinforcement learning and preference-optimization methods for deep learning.
- Builder mindset: A track record of strong research via publications, open-source work, shipped models, or equivalent evidence that you drive results. You are highly self-directed but thrive in a tight-knit, collaborative founding partnership.
- Entrepreneurial spirit: Comfort operating with ambiguity and research ownership. You are excited to build the infrastructure and grow the team.

Strong Pluses

- Familiarity with biological research (protein modeling, sequence models, structural biology, or adjacent areas).
- Experience building and scaling training infrastructure on large GPU clusters.
- Past team management and technical leadership experience.

Location Preference for candidates able to co-locate in NYC or SF Bay Area. Remote work is possible for the right candidate.

## What we offer

- Compensation: Base salary of $250,000 to $350,000 during the residency.
- Upside: The potential for a co-founding leadership role in a future spinout, contingent on project success and mutual fit.
- Scientific Impact: Authorship of high-impact open-source datasets, methods, and models
- Resources: Significant secured runway and dedicated GPU resources.
- Unique Environment: A rare combination of frontier ML work directly coupled to a purpose-built, high-throughput experimental engine.
- Comprehensive Benefits: Full benefits package including health insurance, a company sponsored retirement plan, vision, dental, and more.

## About Astera Institute

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Astera Institute is a nonprofit organization that funds and conducts high-impact scientific research and engineering projects focused on neuroscience, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and open science to accelerate positive futures for humanity.
- **Entity Type**: Private nonprofit (501(c)(3) private foundation)
- **Headquarters**: Berkeley, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2020
- **Founders**: Jed McCaleb (also co-founder of Stellar Development Foundation and founder of Vast)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Research services, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, life sciences, grantmaking
- **Target customers**: Not applicable (nonprofit; serves the research community and the public through open science and foundational advances)
- **Mission / purpose**: Empower visionary, high-leverage science and technology projects with the capacity to create transformative progress for human civilization. Focus on areas like AGI, science, and climate that lack natural homes in the existing innovation ecosystem.

## Products & Services
Astera operates three main divisions (not commercial products):
- **Neuro & AGI**: Directed neuroscience and AI research effort to understand biological intelligence and engineer safe, successful general intelligence systems. [astera.org](https://astera.org/)
- **Radial**: Life sciences research division that funds and runs high-impact fundamental scientific challenges, testing new models for how science is conducted. [astera.org](https://astera.org/)
- **Foundation**: Centralized operational, financial support, and ecosystem-building for Neuro-AI, Science, and Strategic Investments. Also leads Residency and Fellowship programs. [astera.org](https://astera.org/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not applicable (nonprofit)
- **Key Metrics**: 
  - **Total assets** (2023): $2,003,858,714 [causeiq.com](https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/astera-institute,845162617/)
  - **Total expenses** (2023): $27,504,754 [causeiq.com](https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/astera-institute,845162617/)
  - **Investment income and dividends** (2023): $58,598,494 [causeiq.com](https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/astera-institute,845162617/)
  - **Headcount**: 55 employees (+63.4% YoY) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-institute)
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Funded primarily by founder Jed McCaleb (grants contributed $131M in 2022). Key leaders include Prachee Avasthi (Head of Open Science), Doris Tsao (Chief Scientist – Neuro), Seemay Chou (CEO – Radial), and Dileep George (Co-Founder, Neuro & AGI). [astera.org](https://astera.org/team/)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - 63.4% employee growth year-over-year (55 people) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-institute)
  - 23 active job postings (up 1050% YoY) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-institute)
  - LinkedIn followers grew 128.9% yearly [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-institute)
  - Presence in Netherlands and United Kingdom [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-institute)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unique model**: Nonprofit foundation that internally incubates and directly funds high-risk, high-leverage research across neuroscience, AI, and life sciences — without the pressure of commercial returns.
- **Top-tier leadership**: Led by accomplished scientists (e.g., Doris Tsao, Dileep George) and experienced operators from organizations like Stellar, Google, and Arcadia Science. [astera.org](https://astera.org/team/)
- **Open science focus**: Strong commitment to open access research and new models for scientific collaboration, attracting talent who value transparency and impact.
- **Substantial capital base**: Over $2B in assets provides long-term runway for ambitious, multi-year projects.

## Strategic Focus
- Deepen understanding of biological intelligence through large-scale neural circuit analysis and causal manipulation (Neuro & AGI). [astera.org](https://astera.org/)
- Continue incubation of radical science projects via Radial, particularly in aging, biotech, and platforms. [causeiq.com](https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/astera-institute,845162617/)
- Expand the Residency and Fellowship programs to attract diverse scientific and engineering talent. [astera.org](https://astera.org/)
- Scale operations and hiring: current job postings span roles from vivarium operations manager to research scientists in energy-based models and distributed simulation systems. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/astera)

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven work**: Directly contribute to foundational research that could reshape humanity’s future with AGI and novel science.
- **Benefits**: Full-time W2 employees receive top-tier medical/dental/vision insurance, 403(b) retirement plans, long-term disability plan, health/dependent-care FSAs, and commuter pre-tax accounts. [astera.org](https://astera.org/careers/)
- **Culture**: Described as an equal opportunity employer committed to equity and inclusion, encouraging diverse applicants. Emphasis on open science, experimentation, and high-leverage impact. [astera.org](https://astera.org/careers/)
- **Work setup**: Headquarters in Berkeley, CA; also has staff in the Netherlands and UK. Specific remote/hybrid policy not disclosed but multiple job postings suggest flexible arrangements.
- **Team composition**: Highly technical and research-oriented (21 researchers, 10 technical staff, 6 medical). Staff previously from Google, Stanford, UCSF, Arcadia Science, Relay Therapeutics. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-institute)
- **Rapid growth**: 63% YoY headcount increase and 1050% growth in job postings signal an expanding organization with ample career opportunities.

## Sources
1. [astera.org](https://astera.org/) – Homepage and division descriptions
2. [astera.org](https://astera.org/team/) – Leadership team details
3. [astera.org](https://astera.org/careers/) – Benefits and culture
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-institute) – Company page with headcount, growth, job postings, and talent sources
5. [causeiq.com](https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/astera-institute,845162617/) – Financials (990-PF: revenues, expenses, assets, program areas)
6. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/astera) – Active open positions list

## Other roles at Astera Institute

- [Talent Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/talent-engineer-astera-institute-emeryville-k0aeeh287nwx) — Emeryville, CA
- [Open Science Data Steward](https://feeny.ai/job/open-science-data-steward-astera-institute-emeryville-an38zx6jn5yj) — Emeryville, CA
- [Open Science Policy and Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/open-science-policy-and-operations-manager-astera-institute-emeryville-e9favr4btbyy) — Emeryville, CA
- [Probe Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/probe-engineer-astera-institute-alameda-v8cj3qr564xq) — Alameda, CA
- [Scientific Writer, Life Science (Radial)](https://feeny.ai/job/scientific-writer-life-science-radial-astera-institute-emeryville-fs8456g7v3fx) — Emeryville, CA
- [Senior Research Associate or Scientist 1 (Polytope Bio)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-research-associate-or-scientist-1-polytope-bio-astera-institute-dcpccg9h5c24) — Emeryville, CA
- [Research Scientist, Multiregional Electrophysiology of Rodent Cognition](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-multiregional-electrophysiology-of-rodent-cognition-astera-cqc9p1d3hhvq) — Alameda, CA
- [Research Scientist/Engineer, Deep Brain Two Photon Imaging and Optogenetics](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-engineer-deep-brain-two-photon-imaging-and-optogenetics-67dzysn3hyam) — Alameda, CA
- [Lead Scientist, Primate Whole-Brain Mapping & Atlas Development](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-scientist-primate-whole-brain-mapping-atlas-development-astera-institute-cxkjfnk72fvb) — Alameda, CA
- [Research Scientist, All-Optical Investigation of Rodent Cognition](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-all-optical-investigation-of-rodent-cognition-astera-6mt4g8pwc4hn) — Alameda, CA