Astera
Software Engineering Intern – Distributed Simulation Systems
About this role
Astera Institute is hiring a Software Engineering Intern to develop infrastructure for large-scale distributed simulation systems covering biological and physics-based environments. You'll tackle systems programming, networking, and performance optimization challenges alongside experienced engineers in a hybrid Emeryville role.
What you'll do
- Contribute to distributed simulation infrastructure and tooling development
- Build networking and communication systems for multi-node simulations
- Develop 3D physics simulation environments using tools like MuJoCo
- Support large-scale biological simulation systems
- Debug and profile performance bottlenecks to improve throughput
- Create internal tools for orchestration, visualization, and developer workflows
What they're looking for
- C++, Python, or similar systems languages
- Linux development environments
- Data structures and algorithms
- Concurrency fundamentals
- Distributed systems concepts
- Physics simulation frameworks
- GPU programming or CUDA
- Scientific computing
Benefits
- Competitive compensation based on Bay Area location
- Hybrid work arrangement in Emeryville, CA
- Exposure to cutting-edge distributed systems and simulation technology
- Mentorship from experienced engineers on real technical problems
- Work on scientifically impactful infrastructure projects
- Occasional team collaboration and events
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Astera
Astera builds advanced infrastructure for large-scale distributed simulations, neuroscience research tools, and knowledge-sharing platforms aimed at accelerating scientific discovery. The company is hiring software engineers, ML researchers, and scientist-engineers to develop high-performance systems, specialized neuroscience instrumentation, and data-efficient machine learning approaches.
View all jobs at AsteraLikely interview questions
- Walk us through a time you debugged a performance bottleneck in a systems-level project. What tools did you use, and how did you identify the root cause?
- Describe your experience with C++ or Python in production or research settings. What was challenging about working in that language at scale?