Neuroscience PhD (Computational / Active Inference) at Clera-AI

San Francisco, California, United States -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

18 Oct, 26

Salary

150000.0

Posted On

20 Jul, 26

Experience

5 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Computational Neuroscience, Active Inference, Machine Learning Engineering, Python, Model Deployment, Biometric Signal Processing, Inference Modeling, Emotional State Quantification

Industry

technology;Information and Internet

Description

About the Role Join a small, fast-moving YC Spring 2026 team building the first wearable designed to read and train emotional intelligence. You'll work at the intersection of computational neuroscience and production machine learning, developing the core inference model that quantifies emotional states — energy, mood, and focus — from a rich stream of audio and biometric signals captured by a consumer wearable device. This is a founding technical role with real ownership. As the company scales, you are expected to grow into a leadership position within the research and ML org. Prototypes are already on users' wrists, and the team is moving fast. What You'll Do Design, develop, and iterate on the inference model that quantifies emotional states from wearable sensor data (150+ audio and biometric signals) Bridge cutting-edge neuroscience research and production-grade machine learning — you will function effectively as both a research scientist and an ML engineer Evaluate and deploy models into a real consumer product pipeline Help define the scientific direction and methodology for emotional state quantification as the team and product scale What We're Looking For Required PhD in computational neuroscience, cognitive science, active inference, or a closely related field — this is a hard requirement Hands-on experience building and deploying inference models to quantify emotional or physiological states from wearable sensor data Strong ML engineering skills: model development, evaluation, and deployment (Python stack) Familiarity with active inference frameworks and computational neuroscience methods Willingness to work on-site in San Francisco (or London) Not a fit Wet-lab-only neuroscience backgrounds without computational/ML experience Compensation & Benefits Salary: ~$150,000 USD (San Francisco) / ~£75,000 GBP (London) Equity: Up to 1–2% (founding-level ownership) Backed by angels and strategic partners (pre-Series A / seed stage) Visa sponsorship: Not available — visa transfers are acceptable; otherwise the London office is an option Location Primary: San Francisco, CA, USA (on-site preferred) Alternative: London, UK (on-site) Location is flexible between these two offices

Responsibilities

Design and develop inference models to quantify emotional states using audio and biometric data from wearable devices. Bridge the gap between neuroscience research and production-grade machine learning to deploy models into a consumer product pipeline.