# Developmental Systems Lead (Fluidics/Perfusion)

> Becoming · San Francisco, United States · Full-time · Posted 2026-05-27

**Salary:** USD 110,000–190,000

**Workplace:** on_site

## Description

### About Becoming

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.

### What You’ll Own

-   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

### Who You Are

You are someone who:

-   Operates with high agency — you identify what needs to be measured and why
-   Takes ownership of outcomes, not just data collection
-   Brings high energy to complex, dynamic biological systems
-   Acts with high integrity — you are honest about uncertainty, limits, and tradeoffs
-   Communicates directly and clearly, especially when systems are not behaving as expected
-   Is self-aware about your strengths and gaps, proactively fills them and open to feedback
-   Thinks like a systems integrator, not a siloed specialist

Is comfortable working where physiology, engineering, and modeling intersect

## Requirements

Required

-   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  
      
    

Strong Signals

-   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

## Benefits

-   Competitive salary and meaningful equity depending on experience level
-   Full benefits
-   High-trust, high-ownership environment
-   Rapid growth in scope and responsibility

## Apply

[Apply at Becoming](https://apply.workable.com/becoming/j/9B8AB8CD51/apply)

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