Developmental Systems Lead (Fluidics/Perfusion)
24 days ago
San Francisco
Job DescriptionAbout Becoming Becoming is building Developmental Intelligence: AI for predicting how organisms change over time. Most experimental systems fail when metabolic demands become too high. We are building systems that don’t — enabling sustained, controllable biological processes over long time horizons so that development, adaptation, and failure can be observed, perturbed, and predicted. Physiology is central to this effort. Without stable, well-characterized physiological function, long-horizon prediction is impossible. The Role We are hiring a Developmental Systems Lead to own making externally sustained developmental systems run stably, repeatably, and predictably over days to weeks. This role is for someone who thinks in systems, not endpoints — someone who understands how transport, metabolism, signaling, mechanics, and homeostasis interact over time. You will lead the design and operation of systems that integrate perfusion, physiology, sensing, actuation, and closed-loop control to sustain and perturb development in ways that generate meaningful, causal data. This is a high-agency role. You will be expected to define measurements, interpret dynamics, and drive improvements in system-level function. What You’ll Own • End-to-end responsibility for externally sustained developmental systems operating over days to weeks, • Definition of what “success” means beyond “alive,” including how stability, drift, and failure are measured over time, • Identification, characterization, and mitigation of long-horizon failure modes (e.g., drift, inflammation, hemolysis, interface breakdown), • Design and refinement of closed-loop control strategies for complex biological systems, • Integration of perfusion hardware, sensors, and control software into durable platforms, • Decisions about when systems are sufficiently stable to perturb, compare, and learn from, • Close collaboration with developmental biology, hardware, and ML / modeling teams, • Building systems that improve with iteration, not systems that require constant manual expert intervention Who You Are You are someone who: • Operates with high agency — you identify what needs to be measured and why, • Takes ownership of outcomes, not just data collection, • Brings high energy to complex, dynamic biological systems, • Acts with high integrity — you are honest about uncertainty, limits, and tradeoffs, • Communicates directly and clearly, especially when systems are not behaving as expected, • Is self-aware about your strengths and gaps, proactively fills them and open to feedback Requirements Required • Deep, hands-on experience with long-running biological or physiological systems (days+, not hours), • PhD or equivalent experience in physiology, engineering, or a related field, • Experience with several of the following:, • Perfusion systems involving blood or blood analogs, • Hemodynamics, flow, pressure, and shear — and their biological consequences, • Inflammation, coagulation, hemolysis, or endothelial failure in sustained systems, • Closed-loop control of noisy, drifting systems, • Real-time instrumentation and sensing in biological environments, • Diagnosing failure modes that emerge gradually, not catastrophically, • Ability to work fluently with developmental biologists and/or physiologists, • At least 1 year of industry or applied systems experience Strong Signals • Background in perfusion, ECMO, organ support, or normothermic preservation, • Physiology-driven systems engineering experience, • Experience with complex robotics or control systems operating in irreversible environments, • Competitive salary and meaningful equity, • Full benefits, • High-trust, high-ownership environment, • Rapid growth in scope and responsibility