---
title: 'Staff / Principal Automated Systems Engineer at Lila Sciences'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-principal-automated-systems-engineer-lila-sciences-cambridge-6kz5ge6t8hg7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Staff / Principal Automated Systems Engineer at Lila Sciences

- **Company:** Lila Sciences
- **Location:** Cambridge, MA
- **Compensation:** $163k–$228k
- **Posted:** 2026-01-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lilasciences/jobs/4110350009

## Job description

## Your Impact at LILA

Lila Sciences is seeking a highly skilled, hands-on Automated Systems Engineer to design, develop, and implement automation solutions across a broad range of laboratory workflows. Reporting to the Automated Systems Engineering Lead, this role is critical to building scalable, high-throughput automated workcells that translate scientific intent into reliable, real-world systems.

This role serves as a steward of scientific and cross-functional requirements—working closely with scientists, hardware, controls, and software teams to define scope, align interfaces, and drive projects from concept through deployment. The successful candidate will actively partner with scientific partners helping shape the technical direction of experimental automation in a fast-moving research environment.

## What You'll Be Building

Technical Responsibilities

- Actively contribute to hands-on development, testing, and implementation of automated workflows in the lab.
- Develop scalable automated solutions for synthesis and characterization workflows, supporting a variety of material systems such as porous materials, catalysts, coatings, and advanced composites.
- Define and document standardized laboratory workflows, operating procedures, and system architectures to support reproducibility and scale.
- Lead and participate in equipment- and system-level FMEAs to improve robustness and operational safety.
- Assist in the troubleshooting and optimization of automated systems for throughput, reliability, and adaptability across diverse workflows.
- Design failure detection methods and maintain laboratory automation systems to ensure robust operations.

Project Innovation

- Translate scientific objectives into well-scoped technical requirements and automation architectures.
- Act as a connective tissue between science, hardware, controls, and software—ensuring interfaces are clear and solutions are cohesive.
- Explore and integrate emerging technologies, such machine vision, and advanced sensors, to enhance automation capabilities.
- Ensure alignment of automation solutions with safety, quality, and regulatory standards.

## What You’ll Need to Succeed

- Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Materials Science, Chemistry, Engineering, or a related field.
- Strong hands-on experience developing and scaling automated workflows in laboratory or industrial settings.
- Understanding of Python programming, including API integration and error handling.
- Understanding of CAD design and rapid prototyping, including 3D printing.
- Hands-on experience with hardware systems, including electrical wiring, sensors, liquid/gas plumbing, and PID controllers.
- Strong critical thinking skills, attention to detail, and ability to work collaboratively in a dynamic environment.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences.
- Familiarity with advanced experimental systems, including vacuum, laser, furnace, and electrochemical experimentation.
- Knowledge of machine vision applications and robotics control algorithms.
- Proven ability to integrate hardware and controls systems with automation workflows.
- Understanding of AI-driven decision-making in research automation.
- Prior experience leading technical teams in a fast-paced R&D environment.

Bonus Points For

Working at Lila Sciences, you would have access to advanced technology in the areas of:

- AI experimental design and simulation
- Automated custom instrumentation
- Generative molecular and material design

## Compensation

We offer competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity. Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact.

U.S. Benefits. Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-paid life and disability insurance; flexible time off with generous company wide holidays; paid parental leave; an educational assistance program; commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees; and a company subsidized lunch program.

International Benefits. Full-time employees outside the U.S. receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region. USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions; international salaries are set to local market.

Expected Base Salary Range $163,400—$228,000 USD

## 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

- [ML Engineer, Applied AI](https://feeny.ai/job/ml-engineer-applied-ai-lila-sciences-cambridge-bxk3xbqk91wd) — Cambridge, MA / San Francisco, CA
- [Engineer I, Research Operations (2nd Shift)](https://feeny.ai/job/engineer-i-research-operations-2nd-shift-lila-sciences-cambridge-8ete74c2jp45) — Cambridge, MA
- [Data Scientist II / Senior Data Scientist, Life Sciences](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-ii-senior-data-scientist-life-sciences-lila-sciences-cambridge-wvrt5y3pkr50) — Cambridge, MA
- [Senior Data Engineer, Bioinformatics, Cheminformatics, Materials](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-engineer-bioinformatics-cheminformatics-materials-lila-sciences-san-kp5d4nbn38vz) — San Francisco, CA
- [Associate Director, App](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-director-app-lila-sciences-cambridge-46qgd5hp866e) — Cambridge, MA / San Francisco, CA
- [Maintenance Engineering Technician II](https://feeny.ai/job/maintenance-engineering-technician-ii-lila-sciences-cambridge-qgp4st6zk9gw) — Cambridge, MA
- [Research Scientist, Photonic Materials Discovery](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-photonic-materials-discovery-lila-sciences-cambridge-m87b6zgatgmg) — Cambridge, MA
- [Research Scientist I/II, Computational Organic Electronics](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-i-ii-computational-organic-electronics-lila-sciences-mh2tq43ahp5d) — Cambridge, MA
- [Associate Engineer/ Engineer I, Formulations and Characterization](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-engineer-engineer-i-formulations-and-characterization-lila-sciences-6dy4t3wbbqar) — Cambridge, MA
- [Senior Manager, Scientific Discovery Capacity Planning](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manager-scientific-discovery-capacity-planning-lila-sciences-cambridge-c1tjq0yzrj9f) — Cambridge, MA