--- title: 'Co-op, Agentic and Generative Protein Design at Lila Sciences' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-agentic-and-generative-protein-design-lila-sciences-cambridge-avtbwmeq8bq9' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-06' --- # Co-op, Agentic and Generative Protein Design at Lila Sciences - **Company:** Lila Sciences - **Location:** Cambridge, MA / San Francisco, CA - **Posted:** 2026-11-02 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-06 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lilasciences/jobs/4462613009 ## Job description ## Your Impact at LILA Our team works on AI methods for therapeutic protein design, with a tight loop between computation and the wet lab. A co-op could take on either of two tracks, or a mix of both. (1) Generative models and protein design pipelines: build, benchmark, and improve methods for designing proteins (such as antibodies and minibinders), with candidates tested in our lab so results are grounded in experimental data. (2) AI agents for protein design campaigns: build and evaluate agents that help plan campaign strategy (target and epitope selection, choosing methods and settings), execute campaigns (launching design and filtering runs, diagnosing failures, adapting the next round), and reason over biological priors from the literature alongside the outputs of domain-specific models. Either way, the co-op would own a well-scoped project, ship code and analyses that feed real design decisions and scientific outcomes. ## What You'll Be Building - Develop, evaluate, and apply agentic systems for protein design and/or deep generative models for protein design. ## What You'll Need to Succeed - Strong python and and computational science background. - Experience with coding agents. - Experience with machine learning for molecular design Bonus Points For - Experience with customizing agents, building harnesses, or using agents for scientific applications - Solid technical understand and experience with generative models. ## About LILA Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. We believe science is the most inspiring frontier for AI. Rather than hard-coding expert knowledge into tools, LILA builds systems that can learn for themselves. LILA combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments into an operating system for science that executes the entire scientific method autonomously, accelerating discovery at unprecedented speed, scale, and impact across medicine, materials, and energy. Learn more at www.lila.ai. Guided by our core values of truth, trust, curiosity, grit, and velocity, we move with startup speed while tackling problems of historic importance. If this sounds like an environment you'd love to work in, even if you don't meet every qualification listed above, we encourage you to apply. We’re All In Lila Sciences is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. Information you provide during your application process will be handled in accordance with our [Candidate Privacy Policy](https://www.lila.ai/candidate-privacy-policy-notice). A Note to Agencies Lila Sciences does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to Lila Sciences or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Lila Science’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of Lila Sciences, and Lila Sciences will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto. ## About Lila Sciences ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Lila Sciences is building the world’s first Scientific Superintelligence platform and autonomous lab, using AI to autonomously generate hypotheses, design and run experiments, and learn from results in real time across life sciences, chemistry, materials, energy, and defense. - **Entity Type**: Private (Privately Held) – Series A, Seed, and Grant funding rounds - **Headquarters**: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States - **Founded**: Not publicly available (first funding round was Seed in March 2025) - **Founders**: Not publicly available (founded within Flagship Pioneering’s ecosystem) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: AI-powered scientific discovery and autonomous laboratory platforms - **Target customers**: B2B – research organizations, biotech, pharmaceutical, energy, materials, aerospace, and defense companies - **Mission**: “Scientific Superintelligence to solve humankind’s greatest challenges” – accelerating discovery across medicine, materials, energy, and defense ## Products & Services - **LILA Platform (Scientific Superintelligence)**: An AI model and operating system that autonomously executes the entire scientific method – generating hypotheses, designing experiments, running them in physical labs, and learning from results in real time. - **AI Science Factory™ Instruments**: Proprietary hardware and robotics that serve as the “body” of the platform, enabling automated experimentation at scale. - **Domain-specific applications**: Tailored solutions for biotech (drug discovery, protein engineering), therapeutics (mRNA, antibodies, cell therapies), energy & environment (clean fuels, catalysis, critical minerals), advanced materials, chemicals, aerospace & defense, and oil & gas. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total funding – USD $550.7M (as of LinkedIn data) - Seed Round (March 2025): $200M led by Flagship Pioneering - Series A (September 2025): $235M led by Braidwell and Collective Global Management - Series A (November 2025): $115M led by NVentures (NVIDIA) - Grant (January 2026): $671,400 led by ARIA - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Flagship Pioneering, NVIDIA (NVentures), Braidwell, Collective Global Management, ARIA - **Growth Signals**: Named #25 on the 2026 CNBC Disruptor 50 List; headcount of 308 employees (monthly growth +10.6%); 122 active job postings; operates in 6 countries (US, UK, Canada, Poland, Spain, Germany) ## Competitive Advantages - **Proprietary AI model** that consistently outperforms other models across scientific domains in complex analysis and reasoning. - **Autonomous physical labs** that close the loop between AI hypothesis generation and real-world experimentation. - **“Team of Teams” operating model** enabling startup speed at scale while maintaining radical transparency and high trust. - **General platform approach** (inspired by Rich Sutton’s “Bitter Lesson”) rather than narrow domain-specific tools, allowing broad applicability. ## Strategic Focus - Accelerating discovery across medicine, materials, energy, and defense - Scaling the autonomous science platform to more industries and use cases - Building “Scientific Superintelligence” that can tackle humanity’s greatest challenges - Continued investment in AI research, robotics, and lab automation ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Emphasizes velocity, trust, curiosity, truth, and grit. “Think freely, prove precisely.” A high-trust, mission-driven environment where scientists and engineers work side by side. - **Remote/Hybrid/Office**: Roles are listed in Cambridge, MA; San Francisco, CA; and London, UK. Physical lab presence suggests significant on-site work, but some roles may offer flexibility. Policy not explicitly stated. - **Notable perks/engineering culture**: Opportunity to work at the frontier of AI and scientific discovery; collaboration with world-renowned experts; access to cutting-edge robotics and AI infrastructure; strong emphasis on learning and teaching (“generous teachers and eager learners”). ## Sources 1. [lila.ai](https://www.lila.ai/) 2. [lila.ai/about](https://www.lila.ai/about) 3. [lila.ai/open-roles](https://www.lila.ai/open-roles) 4. [LinkedIn - Lila Sciences](https://www.linkedin.com/company/lila-sciences) 5. [Greenhouse Job Board](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lilasciences/jobs/4246302009) ## Other roles at Lila Sciences - [Director / Senior Director, Intellectual Property, Life Sciences](https://feeny.ai/job/director-senior-director-intellectual-property-life-sciences-lila-sciences-663mx8sk9dpg) — Cambridge, MA / San Francisco, CA - [Automation Engineer I/II, Sustaining Engineering & Lab Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/automation-engineer-i-ii-sustaining-engineering-lab-operations-lila-sciences-2wp1t59bbm9s) — Cambridge, MA - [Co-Op, Targeted Non-Viral Delivery](https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-targeted-non-viral-delivery-lila-sciences-cambridge-g7gc30z235rg) — Cambridge, MA - [Co-Op, AI-Driven Equation Discovery](https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-ai-driven-equation-discovery-lila-sciences-cambridge-hdvks2gddm7a) — Cambridge, MA / San Francisco, CA - [Co-Op, Editorial Content](https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-editorial-content-lila-sciences-cambridge-wxs4v4cxc0av) — Cambridge, MA - [Co-Op, Bayesian Methods for Complex Decision Making](https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-bayesian-methods-for-complex-decision-making-lila-sciences-cambridge-ndt2w02kgvj2) — Cambridge, MA / San Francisco, CA - [Co-Op, SCADA Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-scada-engineer-lila-sciences-cambridge-hv28gbacp62z) — Cambridge, MA - [Co-Op, Structuring Scientific Data for Discovery](https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-structuring-scientific-data-for-discovery-lila-sciences-cambridge-57tgh64e8y0k) — Cambridge, MA / San Francisco, CA - [Co-Op, Electron Microscopy](https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-electron-microscopy-lila-sciences-cambridge-nj1aaxqp55xm) — Cambridge, MA - [Co-Op, Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/co-op-finance-lila-sciences-cambridge-8p0szx7ty94c) — Cambridge, MA