Precision Instrumentation Control & Estimation Consultant

Astera Institute; Emeryville (CA); On-site; USD 165,312 - 261,744; Part time

Job summary

Astera Institute seeks a Controls & Systems-Design Consultant to define the control-system architecture for a DNA-origami actuator project. The role focuses on early constraints, system-identification planning, and collaboration with physics and wet-lab teams in Emeryville.

The engagement is fractional and contract-based, reporting to the project lead. The position emphasizes translating sensor data into design decisions, establishing a stable closed-loop approach, and preparing a clear handoff

Qualifications

• PhD or MS in controls, robotics, electrical engineering, or related field with hands-on closed-loop control-system design.
• Track record translating plant and sensor characteristics into design constraints for precise instrumentation.

Responsibilities

• Define control-system requirements and constraints for the DNA Origami actuator–sensor system, including bandwidth, noise floor, latency, and dynamics.
• Review sensor and drive-stack designs through a controls lens to flag stability and observability issues.
• Specify data logging needs for experiments to enable later modeling and ML analysis.
• Sketch the closed-loop control architecture and a simulation/estimation plan for the incoming engineer to implement.
• Provide a clean, documented handoff to the team.

Skills

Controls design

Kalman filtering

System identification

On-site collaboration

Education

PhD or MS in controls

Equivalent industry depth

Tools

Lab instrumentation

Simulation tools

Job description

About Astera

Astera is a private foundation on a mission to steer science and technology toward an abundant 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 dramatically accelerate innovation. This inflection point provides an unparalleled opportunity to fundamentally rethink the institutions, systems, and tools that drive scientific progress.

Unlike traditional non-profit research organizations, projects supported by Astera operate like high-velocity startups, allowing us to focus on ambitious goals, match structure to problem, and attract strong technical talent and leadership. You can read more about our mission, vision, and programming here.

Position Summary

The Astera Institute is seeking a Controls & Systems-Design Consultant to shape the control-system architecture and requirements of the Gen-1 DNA-origami electrostatic actuator so the device is designed, from the outset, to be observable and controllable. This is an early, fractional engagement: the consultant sets the closed-loop and system-identification constraints into the device-physics and molecular-design decisions during the months those choices are locked. This position reports to Dr. Jeremy Barton (Astera Institute Resident, Project Lead). This is a contract position.

Responsibilities

• Define the control-system requirements and constraints for the DNA Origami actuator–sensor system — sensor bandwidth, noise floor, and latency; actuator drive-signal range and dynamics; and end-to-end observability — and feed them into the device-physics and DNA-origami design decisions early.

• Review the field-effect (FET) position-sensor and electrostatic drive-stack designs through a controls lens, flagging choices that would make the system hard to stabilize, identify, or estimate.

• Specify what the early ensemble and single-molecule experiments must log (sampling, excitation, metadata) so the data is usable for later system identification and ML modeling of the device response.

• Sketch the closed-loop control architecture and a simulation/estimation plan (feedback stabilization, averaging, observers) that the incoming full-time Controls engineer will implement.

• Provide a clean, documented handoff to the team.

Qualifications and Experience

• PhD or MS (or equivalent industry depth) in controls, robotics, electrical engineering, or a related field, with hands-on closed-loop control-system design.

• Track record translating plant and sensor characteristics into design constraints, ideally for noisy, nanoscale, or precision-instrumentation systems.

• Strength in system identification and estimation (Kalman filters / observers) and in specifying data capture for later modeling.

• Comfort advising a physics and wet-lab team fractionally, with occasional on-site collaboration in Emeryville.

Location

This position is hybrid — remote-friendly with occasional on-site collaboration in Emeryville, CA. Some travel may be required from time-to-time for in-person collaboration and work.

Compensation

This is a contract engagement. Compensation is a competitive contract rate, commensurate with experience and the agreed scope and duration of work.

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.

• High standards, internally driven – you hold yourself to the bar of building world-class public goods without benchmarking against others.

• Embrace the tools that define great work today – Astera is building for an AI-driven future and equips the team accordingly; we see these as genuine force multipliers, not optional extras.