PhD Resident, Neuro-AI, Cognitive Neuroscience & Neural Interfaces; Rapid Evaluation

Position: 2027 PhD Resident, Neuro-AI, Cognitive Neuroscience & Neural Interfaces (Rapid Evaluation)
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, CAStart 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 XWhat 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),…