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ABOUT THE ROLE This is a founding technical role at a Y Combinator–backed consumer healthtech startup building a wearable that quantifies emotional states in real time. The company is early-stage (team of ~5), already has prototypes on users' wrists, and is growing fast. You'll own the core inference model that powers the product — bridging cutting-edge computational neuroscience with production machine learning engineering. This is not a pure research role. Computational neuroscientists here effectively double as ML engineers, taking models from research through to deployment. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Design, develop, and iterate on the inference model that quantifies emotional states (e.g. energy, mood, focus) from multimodal wearable sensor data — including audio and biometric signals - Own the full ML lifecycle: model development, evaluation, and production deployment - Apply active inference frameworks and computational neuroscience methods to real-world signal processing challenges - Bridge neuroscience research and production ML, collaborating closely with the founding team to shape both the science and the product roadmap - Grow into a leadership role as the company scales WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Required - PhD in computational neuroscience, cognitive science, active inference, or a closely related field — this is a strict requirement - Hands-on experience building and deploying inference models to quantify emotional or physiological states from wearable sensor data - Strong machine learning engineering skills: model development, evaluation, and deployment - Experience with active inference frameworks and computational neuroscience methods - Comfort working on-site (San Francisco or London) and ability to work without new visa sponsorship (visa transfers considered for the London office) Nice to Have - Experience working in a fast-moving, early-stage environment - Python proficiency across the ML stack - Background in consumer health, biometrics, or affective computing Not a fit: Candidates with a wet-lab-only neuroscience background and no computational or ML engineering experience. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS - Salary: ~$150,000 USD (San Francisco) / ~£75,000 GBP (London) - Equity: Up to 1–2% (founding team equity package) - Backed by angels and strategic partners (pre-Series A / seed stage, YC Spring 2026) LOCATION - On-site in San Francisco, CA, USA or London, UK — location is flexible between the two - Visa sponsorship: Not available for new sponsorships; visa transfers may be considered for the London office