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Astera InstitutePosted 1 week ago

Probe Engineer

$200,000–$350,000 year

On-siteEmeryville, California, United States

Full TimeStartupBiotech Services

Job Summary

Design and build flexible, high-density neural probes, insertion needles, and precision insertion robots for recording brain activity. Integrate probe-to-chip systems, develop machine-vision guidance, and establish electrode characterization pipelines to transition prototypes from benchtop to manufacturing. Manage hardware from initial concept through validation, owning design tradeoffs across mechanical, fabrication, and control domains. Work across mechanical design, microfabrication, and real-time software to deliver instruments that minimize tissue impact while enabling high-scale neural data acquisition.

Required Qualifications

  • Strong hands-on engineering across mechanical design and prototyping
  • Experience building precision electromechanical or robotic systems
  • Familiarity with microfabrication and thin-film processes
  • Comfort with real-time control and the software that drives hardware
  • Working knowledge of the signal-acquisition chain

Desired Qualifications

  • A track record of taking hardware from concept to working, validated device
  • Experience making and defending tradeoffs across precision, reliability, manufacturability, and biocompatibility
  • Comfort working across the stack, from mechanical design and fabrication to control software and system integration
  • A history of mentoring engineers or leading technical initiatives
  • Flexible / thin-film electrode microfabrication
  • Micro-machining and electrochemical etching of fine metal tooling
  • Low-noise analog / mixed-signal front-end design for recording microvolt-scale signals
  • High-density interconnect and packaging
  • Precision motion control, machine vision, or real-time closed-loop robotics
  • Surgical or medical-device hardware
  • Neural interfaces, MEMS sensors, or other implantable devices
  • Contributions to open-source hardware, instrumentation, or scientific-computing projects
  • Graduate work or research experience

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