Developmental Systems Lead (Fluidics/Perfusion)

Becoming•San Francisco, CA

18h

About The Position

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.

Requirements

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, Fluid dynamics, 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

Nice To Haves

Background in perfusion, ECMO, organ support, or organ preservation
Physiology-driven systems engineering experience
Experience with complex robotics or control systems operating in irreversible environments
History of systems that failed — and improved because of it

Responsibilities

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, 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