Neuralink, Elon Musk’s plan to find a way to meld the human brain with artificial intelligence, is officially here, and it’s hiring. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s startup launched on Thursday with a massive explainer written by Tim Urban of WaitButWhy, and the company’s website is now live, with fifteen job openings listed.
Right now, Neuralink.com shows a sparse, minimal logo and links to apply for 15 job openings, which run the gamut of top-level STEM positions, from software engineers to brain-machine interfacing scientists, all of which are full time and based in San Francisco.
“Neuralink is developing ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers,” the website declares. “We are looking for exceptional engineers and scientists. No neuroscience experience is required: talent and drive matter far more. We expect most of our team to come from other areas and industries. We are primarily looking for evidence of exceptional ability and a track record of building things that work.”
The first job listed is for a microfabrication engineer to “lead the development and fabrication of a new class of biological probes.” This position will probably be the person who designs some of the physical devices that will eventually be implanted into patients’ brains. To that end, Neuralink is also hiring a polymer scientist (someone who will study the best materials for use in an implantable neural lace device) and a medical device engineer with experience in implanted probes. The startup is also hiring a mechatronics engineer to design “next generation medical robotics.” That person will “work closely with imaging-guided surgery software engineers and the surgical team.”
The open positions at Neuralink.
You might have noticed a trend here: from the very start, everything Neuralink is doing is designed to go inside your body. Unlike Facebook, which on Wednesday announced that it was conducting research into external brain-computer interfaces, Musk is going straight for an implanted device.
To make any future sophisticated device work, Neuralink is hiring several software engineers with experience in bio-devices (but different specialities), as well as an electrochemist to “develop conductive films and inks” to make the specialized technology interact with the body and brain, which runs on a complicated system of chemical and electrical impulses.
There are a few other specialized positions, but the bottom of the list is what appears to be the big three: a senior scientist for brain-machine interfacing, a senior scientist for neuroscience, and a principle scientist for advanced interfaces.
These three positions appear to be the theoretical and research-based core of Neuralink, as all of them require “an established track record of papers demonstrating original creative thought and high quality execution,” and other high-powered resume lines. It’s possible that Musk already has people in mind for these spots — it’s unlikely that he would finally reveal the company without knowing some of the core members of the team, but the openings suggest that the brand-new startup definitely has room to grow.
And, in case you don’t have multiple post-graduate degrees and years of experience, Neuralink is also hiring qualified lab technicians. The company of course won’t be made entirely of senior scientists, and will likely have an army of talented workers striving to make the human race even smarter.
