Position Summary:Prism is seeking a full-time Senior Scientist, Structural Data Representation to lead how Prism's conformational ensemble models are encoded, organized into databases, and connected to the tools the rest of the field uses. This includes visualization, machine learning models, and other computational pipelines. You will lead a small Prism team and partner with external developer communities to make ensemble data a standard part of structural biology. This position reports to the Scientific Program Director.
Responsibilities:- Lead and mentor a team of 2-3 scientists and software engineers, setting priorities and keeping execution moving as you take Prism's ensemble models from internal research to broad adoption across the field.
- Work with the Scientific Program Director to determine strategy and prioritization of approaches and science within your team.
- Partner with Prism's modeling and ensemble-functional team, alongside the Scientific Program Director, to ensure cohesion across the project, including making sure data representation choices serve both what models produce and what downstream functional analyses need.
- Design, test, and deploy encoding models and schemas for conformational ensembles.
- Direct the development of databases to connect dynamic ensemble models for data sharing and downstream use, including visualization tools.
- Work with external partners such as the PDB and tool developers in the visualization, ML, and computational chemistry space in order to build bridges between work within Prism and external partners.
- Partner with the teams behind widely used open-source structural biology tools to define and implement native support for ensemble models
Qualifications:- PhD in a relevant area; at least 4 years of work experience
- Experience managing a team of scientists or engineers.
- Deep understanding of how structural models are encoded and used for interpretation, including fluency in mmCIF and its extension mechanisms.
- Strong coding experience, with a track record of writing software that other people use.
- Clear communication across technical communities. You can explain data standards to structural biologists, ML researchers, and software developers, and build agreement among them.
- An execution-forward approach. You ship working versions, gather feedback, and iterate.
- Nice to have: product development experience.
- Nice to have: experience building scientific databases or visualization tools.
Cultural Alignment:- Surprising problem-solver - you love finding unexpected solutions to problems we don't even know we have, and see options where others only see constraints.
- Flexible by default - you don't draw hard lines around your job description and expect your role to evolve significantly over 6-12 months.
- Bias to action - you launch and iterate on thoughtful experiments rather than waiting for perfect plans, and you're energized by novel problems.
- High standards, internally driven - you believe you can build the world's best vehicle for unleashing extraordinary individuals to create public goods.
- Open to feedback - you create opportunities to give and receive honest feedback, staying focused on both personal and team growth.
- Operate with the highest levels of integrity, judgment, and stewardship - you treat peers, collaborators, and vendors with genuine respect for their time and contributions.
- Embrace the tools that define great work today - Astera is building for an AI-driven future and equips the team accordingly.
Location:This position is on-site at our Emeryville, CA location. Some travel (10%) will be required for in-person collaboration and presentations. Relocation packages will be considered.
Compensation:This role's pay range is $220k - $260k per year, based on experience, skills, and location.
Benefits:- Top-tier health insurance plans with 99% of premiums covered by Astera Institute for employees and dependents
- Daily lunch that brings the full office together, plus a well-stocked fridge and pantry
- Licenses for frontier AI tools and software
- 403(b) retirement plans, flexible paid time off, paid parental leave, commuter benefits, and health and dependent care FSAs
- Visa Sponsorship
