Role overview
Astera Institute is an independent research organization with a $3B+ endowment, operating outside the constraints of markets and academia. We run more like a startup than a foundation — small team, minimal bureaucracy, high risk tolerance.
Obelisk is Astera's program for charting a path in a world with thinking machines. It combines three complementary efforts — Neuro (decoding how biological neural activity becomes conscious experience), AGI (neuroscience-informed approaches to engineering intelligence), and Safety (building a scientific understanding of intelligence itself). The Simplex team leads the Safety effort within Obelisk, and additionally has a team in London.
This role is employment with Astera Institute. Learn more at astera.org.
Compensation Range: $180K - $400K
What we're looking for
- PhD or equivalent in Physics, CS, neuroscience, math, or comparable
- Extensive ML experience
- Experience in interpretability
We're especially interested in people who might be overlooked by traditional hiring, unconventional backgrounds, unusual paths, the kind of candidate who doesn't fit neatly into a box but has something real. If you're not sure whether you're qualified, we'd still like to hear from you.