PhD Resident - Multiple Teams

About X and Rapid Evaluation:

X is Alphabet’s moonshot factory. We build breakthrough technologies that aim to make the world a radically better place by combining a huge problem, a radical solution, and a breakthrough technology.

The Rapid Evaluation team sits at the earliest stage of X’s moonshot pipeline. We are a small, multidisciplinary group of scientists, engineers, and builders who stress-test bold scientific hypotheses through rapid theoretical, computational, and experimental falsification—finding out as quickly as possible whether an early-stage idea can survive contact with physics and biology, and scaling the breakthroughs that do.

About the Role:

We are looking for a polyvalent PhD Resident whose skillset bridges cognitive and systems neuroscience, hands-on neuroimaging and sensor prototyping, modern multimodal AI, and Brain-Computer / Human-Computer Interfaces (BCI/HCI).

We seek an adaptable scientific generalist who can move fluidly across the full stack of an early-stage neuro-technology exploration:

• Grounding questions in cognitive science and human neurobiology,
• Figuring out their way around complex fMRI, MEG, and EEG datasets,
• Training modern machine learning models for complex multimodal tasks, 
• Getting hands-on in the lab to test emerging bioimaging and quantum sensing modalities,
• Designing experimental paradigms and leading pilot data collection with human participants, and
• Prototyping closed-loop Brain-Computer and Human-Computer Interfaces (BCI/HCI) that couple neural and behavioral streams to modern multimodal AI and agentic workflows.
• You will work side-by-side with Research Scientists, Hardware Engineers, and Rapid Evaluators—moving from whiteboard physics and computational modeling to lab prototypes and human experiments.

What You Will Do:

• Wrangle & Model Multi-Modal Neural Data (fMRI, MEG, EEG): Build end-to-end preprocessing, source reconstruction, and neural encoding/decoding pipelines across fMRI, MEG, EEG, and more—auditing signal quality, biophysical confounds, and biological noise ceilings.
• Bridge Neural Data with Multimodal AI, BCI/HCI & Agentic Workflows: Connect continuous neural and behavioral representations to modern multimodal foundation and AI reasoning models, and prototype closed-loop Brain-Computer / Human-Computer Interfaces (BCI/HCI) and real-time agentic interactions.
• Prototype Emerging Bioimaging & Sensing Modalities: Work hands-on in the lab to evaluate, integrate, and bench-test next-generation non-invasive neural and physiological sensors, including physics-informed signal denoising and real-time closed-loop streaming.
• Design Cognitive Paradigms & Pilot Data Collection: Design behavioral and cognitive neuroscience protocols and help lead hands-on data collection with research participants or clinical collaborators as experimental milestones mature.
• Drive Rapid Scientific Falsification: Translate ambitious neuro-technology concepts into crisp feasibility bounds and quantitative kill criteria, testing hypotheses rapidly across existing datasets, physical simulations, and live lab experiments.

Details:

• Location: X's headquarters in Mountain View, CA
• Start Date(s): Year-round rolling basis
• Duration: a flexible 4 mo. to 1 year program based on project team needs and your availability

Throughout your Residency you can expect:

• To be embedded into one of our confidential or public X projects
• To get paid competitively and receive benefits
• To be a part of a lively community of Interns and Residents
• To attend tech-talks with Leaders from across X

What you should have:

• Currently enrolled in a PhD program (typically 3rd year or above) in Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Computational Neuroscience, Neural Engineering, Bioengineering, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Physics, Machine Learning, or a related interdisciplinary field.
• Hands-On Neuroimaging & Electrophysiology Fluency: Practical experience working with human neural recordings (fMRI, MEG, EEG, or other modalities)—knowing how to inspect raw signals, debug preprocessing and artifact pipelines, and run statistical or encoding/decoding analyses.
• Multimodal AI & Computational Fluency: Strong Python software engineering and hands-on experience training, adapting, or probing multimodal AI and foundation models on neural, physiological, or complex time-series data.
• Cognitive & Experimental Grounding: Solid foundation in cognitive science, experimental design, and statistical rigor.
• Ability to relocate to Mountain View, CA for a full-time, on-site residency of 4 to 6+ months.

It’d be great if you also had these:

• Human Participant & Patient Data Collection: Direct experience running human-subject or clinical patient neuroimaging/electrophysiology sessions, navigating experimental protocols, or building real-time stimulus and streaming setups.
• Quantum Sensors & Emerging Bioimaging Modalities: Hands-on experience with quantum sensing, novel neuroimaging or electrophysiological hardware, physics-informed signal processing, or wearable neural interface prototyping.
• Interactive BCI/HCI, AI Reasoning Models & Agentic Systems: Experience prototyping closed-loop Brain-Computer or Human-Computer Interfaces (BCI/HCI), aligning neural or biosignal data with reasoning models, or building multi-turn agentic human-AI workflows.

What Makes an Exceptional Rapid Eval Resident:

• Polyvalent "Swiss-Army-Knife" Scientist: You are not boxed into "experimental neuro" vs. "hardware/signals" vs. "deep learning"—you love learning whatever tool is needed to answer the scientific question.
• Falsification-First Mindset: You care deeply about scientific truth and get just as excited about designing a clean 48-hour control experiment that kills a flawed hypothesis as you do about scaling a breakthrough result.
• Full-Stack Scientific Autonomy: You are equally comfortable deriving a mathematical estimator, training and probing multimodal models at scale, and debugging real-time sensor streams in the lab.

Additional public information:

• https://www.wired.com/video/watch/astro-teller-captain-of-moonshots-at-x-speaks-at-wired25
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-10-10/alphabet-x-s-astro-teller-on-bloomberg-studio-1-0-video
• https://www.npr.org/2025/09/12/nx-s1-5493348/astro-teller-takes-us-inside-the-moonshot-factory-building-tech-ahead-of-its-time
• https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094574/x-taara/
• https://youtu.be/_iLJU4HORAA?si=aK8cHf64NUNcsZXr

The US base salary range for this position is $109,000 - $157,000 + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process.
Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include benefits.