Neuroscience PhD – Inference Modelling (Founding Role)

About The Role

A Y Combinator–backed consumer wearable startup at the frontier of emotional intelligence is hiring a founding Neuroscience PhD to own the core inference model that quantifies emotional states from wearable sensor data. This is a rare opportunity to join a five-person team at the ground floor, bridging cutting-edge computational neuroscience research with production machine learning — with real ownership and equity from day one.

What You'll Do

• Design, develop, and iterate on the inference model that quantifies emotional states (energy, mood, focus) from multi-modal wearable sensor data
• Bridge neuroscience research and production ML — you will function equally as a research scientist and an ML engineer
• Evaluate and deploy models at scale, maintaining rigour from experimental design through to on-device or cloud inference
• Apply active inference frameworks and computational neuroscience methods to novel, real-world signal problems
• Help define the scientific roadmap as a founding team member, with the expectation of building and leading a research org as the company scales

What We're Looking For

• Required PhD in computational neuroscience, cognitive science, active inference, or a closely related field (dealbreaker)
• Demonstrated experience building and deploying inference models to quantify physiological or emotional states from wearable or biosensor data
• Strong ML engineering skills: model development, evaluation pipelines, and production deployment
• Hands-on experience with active inference frameworks and computational neuroscience methods
• Proficiency in Python and relevant scientific/ML tooling
• Ability to work on-site in San Francisco or London

Nice to Have

• Experience with multi-modal biosignal processing (EEG, PPG, GSR, audio, etc.)
• Prior experience in a fast-moving early-stage startup environment
• Interest in consumer hardware and the intersection of neuroscience and product

Not a Fit

• Wet-lab-only neuroscience backgrounds without computational or ML experience

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: ~$150,000 USD (San Francisco) / ~£75,000 GBP (London)
• Equity: Up to 1–2% (founding team stake)

The Company

• The company has recently closed a seed round with angels and strategic partners
• Visa sponsorship: Not available for new visas; existing visa transfers considered

Location

On-site in San Francisco, CA, USA or London, UK. Location is flexible between the two offices. This is not a remote role.