Clinical Research Engineer — Instrumentation

Job Description Clinical Research Engineer — Instrumentation Deliberate AI | Hybrid (NYC/Boston, with on-site at clinical partners) | Full-Time About Deliberate AI We're a venture-backed company at the frontier of precision mental health. In partnerships with some of the world's top ranked medical schools and psychiatric hospitals, we've secured non-dilutive funding from the NIH, ARPA-H, DARPA, the FDA and the Wellcome Trust. We're deploying multimodal AI systems in clinical trials and healthcare settings across four continents — and we're hiring the engineering team to build what comes next. About the Role In a clinical encounter, a patient and clinician or psychotherapist sit together. Around them — unobtrusively — a synchronized array of sensors is capturing the moment: high-resolution video tracking facial action units frame by frame, microphones picking up vocal prosody shifts, wearables recording heart rate variability and electrodermal activity, and an EEG headset measuring neural dynamics. Every one of those signals needs to be acquired cleanly, synchronized to the millisecond, and flawlessly captured before the session ends. That's your job. You'll own the multimodal signal acquisition and hardware synchronization infrastructure for a federally funded research program that makes in-session therapeutic change observable, interpretable, and testable. You'll design and operate the hardware systems that capture physiological (HR, HRV, EDA, respiration), neurological (EEG), and behavioral (audio-visual) signals from active psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trials. This means working on-site at Mount Sinai and the Bronx VA during data collection phases, building robust acquisition protocols, and ensuring that when a researcher needs synchronized multimodal data from a therapy session, the physical capture is pristine. This role requires deep independence — you'll be the person Deliberate AI relies on to act as the ultimate analog-to-digital bridge in an environment where you can't re-run the experiment if a sensor fails. Who You Are You've worked with physiological and neural recording systems in real-world settings — not just benchtop demos. You know the difference between a signal that looks clean in the lab and one that holds up in a noisy clinical environment with a moving participant. You are the critical bridge between the physical world and the digital dataset, operating as the primary point of failure for data fidelity. You care deeply about electrode-skin impedance, hardware-level synchronization, and rigorous calibration protocols, because you know that no algorithm can fix a poorly captured signal. You are comfortable operating independently in clinical environments, troubleshooting live sensor rigs, and ensuring that when a researcher needs multimodal data from a therapy session, the physical capture is flawless. What You'll Do Deploy and Operate Clinical Hardware : Manage the multimodal signal acquisition infrastructure on-site, including research-grade EEG headsets, physiological wearables (HR, HRV, EDA, respiration), and complex audio-visual capture rigs Ensure Hardware Synchronization : Build and maintain hardware-level synchronization systems, utilizing shared clock references, TTL triggers, and network time protocols to guarantee millisecond-accurate time alignment across all independent sensor streams Calibrate and Troubleshoot : Oversee all equipment calibration, impedance optimization, and artifact rejection protocols during active clinical data collection phases to ensure pristine signal quality Manage Equipment Lifecycle : Maintain all recording hardware, executing rigorous replacement protocols, health checks, and inventory management for deployed systems across multiple clinical sites Train and Support : Serve as the technical authority on the ground, working directly with clinical staff to ensure acquisition protocols run reliably and troubleshooting physical sensor issues in real time Growth trajectory : As our research programs scale to additional clinical sites and Deliberate takes on new signal acquisition programs, you'll define the acquisition standards, hardware protocols, and site deployment playbooks that become the foundation for clinical measurement across the company. You may be a good fit if you: Have 5–8+ years of experience in biomedical instrumentation, clinical hardware engineering, or physiological signal acquisition Have deep, hands-on experience with EEG recording systems , specifically electrode preparation, impedance optimization, and real-time artifact mitigation in human subjects Have worked extensively with wearable or clinical-grade physiological sensors capturing HR, HRV, EDA, and respiration Possess expert knowledge of hardware synchronization techniques , aligning data streams from heterogeneous devices using hardware triggers and shared clocks Have a strong track record of operating in clinical or field research settings , maintaining equipment reliability where conditions are imperfect and data cannot be easily recollected Hold a Master's or PhD in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Neuroscience, or a related field (or equivalent experience) Strong candidates may also: Have experience modifying off-the-shelf sensors or building custom hardware interfaces for specialized clinical use Have worked on multimodal hardware integration — physically synchronizing and networking sensor arrays from disparate manufacturers Have experience with clinical trial data collection and familiarity with IRB protocols and participant-facing research workflows Have built automated hardware health and signal quality alerting systems for longitudinal or multi-site studies Have publications in biomedical engineering, neurotechnology, or hardware-focused clinical methodologies Compensation & Benefits Base Salary : $120,000 – $160,000 (commensurate with experience, qualifications, and location) Early-stage equity with meaningful ownership — you're joining at a stage where individual grants are substantial Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance 401(k) with company match Flexible PTO policy Publication co-authorship on peer-reviewed clinical research — your signal acquisition work shows up in the scientific record alongside the science it enables Location : This role is based in Boston or NYC (TBC) with significant on-site presence at clinical partner sites during active data collection phases. Over time, as recording infrastructure is established and automated, the role transitions to primarily office-based (NYC or Boston) with remote monitoring of deployed systems. Work authorization : Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. We welcome applicants who hold US citizenship, permanent residency, or existing work authorization including H-1B (transfer-eligible), OPT/STEM OPT, or TN visa (Canadian and Mexican citizens). If you already hold an H-1B, we will sponsor your green card if desired but we are not currently able to sponsor new H-1B petitions. Deliberate AI evaluates candidates based on merit, qualifications, and the skills needed to succeed in the role.