Staff Software Engineer

About the Company

Astera is a private foundation with a $2.5B endowment on a mission to steer science and technology toward an abundant future for all. We operate like a high-velocity startup with unprecedented access to computational resources and complete freedom from funding pressures or profit motives.

Responsibilities

• Define and architect high-performance infrastructure for training large-scale models and running complex simulations
• Design and optimize custom RL environments informed by neuroscience
• Set the standard for clean, fast, production-grade code to boost research velocity
• Turn research prototypes into scalable production systems
• Tackle systemic technical bottlenecks from low-level optimization to high-level strategy

Requirements

• Proven success architecting complex systems from scratch
• Experience with high-velocity software craftsmanship and maintainable code
• Track record of leading the resolution of difficult engineering challenges
• Ability to master complex new domains like neuroscience quickly
• Experience with distributed systems or kernel-level optimization