Join the team
Interested in our work? Apply to open positions below or reach out to talmo@salk.edu with your CV to discuss potential opportunities at any level.
Philosophy
A core belief in our lab is that being happy is essential to doing good science. We believe that your success is everyone’s success, and therefore place an extremely high value on mentorship, work-life balance and open communication.
Lab members should expect to be able to ask for help whenever they need it, and be eager to pay it forward during their tenure here and beyond.
Our group’s culture is intended to reflect the reality that not everyone is afforded the same opportunities before they arrive here, but that that does not mean they are not as qualified or worthy of the chance to prove themselves. It is only by acknowledging the structural disparities that are inherent in academia that we can effect real change — and do amazing science along the way!
Location, location, location!
Come work in sunny San Diego! The lab is located in the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a non-profit research institute located right next to the University of California San Diego (UCSD).
Surfing before or after work is recommended, but not required.
Opportunities
If you are interested in any of the positions below, reach out to talmo@salk.edu for a casual chat. We strongly recommend including your CV and GitHub.
Open positions
- Postdoctoral Fellow (joint with Eiman Azim): Our groups are looking for a postdoctoral fellow with strong expertise in biomechanics, deep reinforcement learning and/or NeuroAI to work with us on simulating brains, bodies and behavior.
- Bioinformatics Analyst: Junior software engineering position to work in the SLEAP team on cloud-based platform engineering to facilitate the use of deep learning-based technology for motion capture.
- Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Intern: We are taking undergraduate summer students through Salk’s SURF Program. Positions are available in either modeling or software engineering for computational neuroscience.
Coming up (late 2024):
- Bioinformatics Analyst: Junior software engineering position to work in the Bloom team on cloud-based platform engineering to develop a data warehouse for phenotypic and genetic data in support of Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative and our mission to enhance carbon sequestration in crops to curb climate change.
Software engineers
We are always on the look out for scientific programmers! If you have a background in DevOps, MLOps, web dev or other software engineering skillsets and an interest in deep learning/computer vision, we’d like to chat with you! Prior experience in machine learning research is not required — just show us your code!
We offer very competitive compensation and are happy to provide training to prepare our engineers for a continuing career in research or engineering in academia or industry!
Postdoctoral fellows
Finishing your PhD soon in neuroscience, computer science, physics, or another computational field? We regularly recruit post-docs to work directly with us or jointly with one of our collaborators.
Graduate students
Come learn with us!
If you are interested in pursuing a MS or PhD while working in the lab, you will need to apply to one of the graduate programs at UCSD. We are open to potentially accepting students from any program, but we recommend:
If you have questions, aren’t sure which program to apply to, or just want to chat about graduate school options, feel free to reach out.
High school and undergraduate internships
Interested in doing research with us during the school year or for a summer? We are always looking for talented undergraduates to take on ambitious independent research projects. You will be treated like a graduate student, but we will provide all the support and mentoring you need to meet our mutual expectations and succeed in transitioning to the next stage of your career.
UCSD students: To work at Salk, you will need to enroll in a research for academic credit course such as BISP 199, COGS 199 or CSE 199. Make sure to check out the general requirements for enrollment.
We especially recommend that UCSD students considering working with us for a longer period of time apply for the Triton Research & Experiential Learning Scholars (TRELS) program. This opportunity provides funding to conduct and present your research.
