General Prism Job Application

About Astera

Astera is a private foundation on a mission to steer science and technology toward a better future. We believe the coming years will bring an era of unprecedented scientific and technological advancement as exponential progress in AI converges with central advances in other fields to accelerate innovation. This inflection point provides an unparalleled opportunity to fundamentally rethink the institutions, systems, and tools that drive progress. We have committed a $3.5B endowment to that work and fit the form of our support to the function it serves: grants, investments, and in-house research programs. We accept meaningful risk in the research we back and expect some of it to fail because transformative ideas are rarely the ones already proven. Our projects, and the foundation itself, operate like high-velocity startups, with a high performance bar and competitive compensation to match. We are searching for leaders who are compelled by the challenge of driving high-impact change in the way science is funded, conducted, and communicated. You can read more about our mission, vision, and programming at astera.org/vision .

About Prism

Prism is a program within Radial, the basic life sciences division of the Astera Institute. We are making protein motion measurable, predictable, and actionable by building open infrastructure for studying protein dynamics directly from experimental data. Function emerges from the ensemble of conformations a protein adopts and how it moves between them, and we are rebuilding the structural biology stack around that premise: data collection, modeling, representation, and interpretation. We work at the interface of experimental structural biology (crystallography, cryo-EM), machine learning, computational biophysics, and open scientific tooling. Our team spans computational biologists, ML researchers, software engineers, and program staff, collaborating across Radial, Astera, and partner institutions.

Submit your CV and one paragraph telling us what you can contribute to Prism

We review submissions on a rolling basis

If there is a fit now or in the near future, we will reach out

We will only respond if we are interested in exploring further

Role categories We're Actively Building Around

Computational and data science

Diffraction data processing and structural data pipelines

Multiconformer and heterogeneity analysis from large datasets

Data standards work (mmCIF and related)

Macromolecular ensemble metrics

Machine learning research for macromolecules and biophysics

Representation learning for protein dynamics

ML on raw experimental data rather than processed structures

3D vision and geometric deep learning backgrounds especially welcome

Dataset generation and open release

Designing and running campaigns to generate large structural datasets

Partnering with external collaborators to open and standardize existing datasets

Bridging experimental facilities, data producers, and the open-science community

Software and infrastructure engineering

Scientific data infrastructure, pipelines, and tooling

Open-source release engineering, reproducibility, and developer experience

Program and operations

Program management, scientific coordination, communications

Open-science publishing and community building

What We Look For Across All Roles

Familiarity with protein biophysics and the experimental methods that generate structural data

High agency: you identify what needs doing and move it forward without waiting for direction

Ability to drive projects and people, including collaborators outside your reporting line

Comfortable owning a problem end-to-end and unblocking collaborators

Strong commitment to open science and public-good infrastructure

Comfort working at the boundary between disciplines

Bias toward shipping, iteration, and rapid feedback

Clear written and verbal communication

Track record of independent work inside collaborative teams

Logistics

Location: in-person at Astera in Emeryville, California

Astera is a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation

This is not an application to a specific posted role; we will reach out only if there is a fit

Compensation

The posted salary range is based on location in the Bay Area. The successful candidate will receive a competitive compensation package, commensurate with their experience and location.

Benefits summary

To apply

Send your CV

Include one short paragraph: which role category, and why Prism specifically