Senior/Staff AI Scientist (Polytope Bio)
Astera
Posted
Jul 29, 2026
Location
USA
Type
Full-time
Compensation
$200000 - $300000
Mission
What you will drive
- Drive core research to develop cutting-edge AI models for generative biology.
- Design and implement reinforcement learning feedback loops using high-throughput biological measurements.
- Architect model training infrastructure and build, run, and debug models and training loops.
- Partner with experimental team to integrate wet-lab measurements with model learning.
Impact
The difference you'll make
This role accelerates the development of AI models that align with real biological data, enabling breakthroughs in generative biology and drug discovery, ultimately steering science toward an abundant future.
Profile
What makes you a great fit
- PhD in machine learning, computational biology, or related field with 1-2 years post-PhD research or industry experience (or equivalent without PhD).
- Experience training models from scratch, including debugging training runs.
- Hands-on experience with generative diffusion models and/or transformer architectures.
- Familiarity with modern reinforcement learning and preference-optimization methods.
Benefits
What's in it for you
Base salary of $200,000 to $300,000 during the residency. Potential to evolve into a co-founding technical role in a future spinout. Authorship of high-impact open-source datasets, methods, and models. Significant secured runway and dedicated GPU resources. Full benefits package including health insurance, company-sponsored retirement plan, vision, dental, and more.