Lila Sciences
Principal Scientist / Associate Director, Soft Materials Experimentation
Cambridge, MA USA · Director · Full-time
Sponsorship not specified$156k-$214kDetected 27 days ago
PythonMachine LearningAI OrchestrationA/B TestingRecruitingRoboticsLoad TestingMentoring
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odds of building a lasting career here
61Sponsors, lottery-bound
Cap-exempt (no lottery)0
Sponsors this role90
Entry-level history0
PERM / green-card track0
Lottery odds (Level IV)94
Fits your clock70
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
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About the role
- You will take on a group of four scientists and grow it as the portfolio expands across formulation, rheological and scattering characterization, and polymer processing.
- The work asks you to stay close to the bench while mentoring a growing team and setting its direction over a multi-year growth horizon.
- Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact.
Responsibilities
- Lila is hiring a Scientific Leader to build and run our experimental soft materials team, covering formulations, polymers, colloids, gels, emulsions, inks, adhesives, and coatings.
- Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges.
- Rather than hard-coding expert knowledge into tools, LILA builds systems that can learn for themselves.
Compensation
- We offer competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity.
- USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions; international salaries are set to local market.
- Expected Base Salary Range
- $156,000 - $214,000 USD
Benefits
- Full-time employees outside the U.S. receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region.
- U.S. Benefits.
- International Benefits.
Company info
- Lead and grow a group of scientists spanning formulation, polymer processing, and physical characterization; set scientific direction, develop the team, and hire against an expanding portfolio
- Own the experimental strategy for soft materials - the measurement stack, the campaign designs, and the scientific validity of what the group publishes internally and to partners
- Hold your team's delivery on partner-funded programs alongside the technical program managers who own the programs themselves, setting the standard on timelines, throughput, and data quality
- Build and validate high-throughput workflows spanning melt and solution rheology, scattering, thermal and mechanical analysis, microfluidics, and application-specific performance testing
- Define the measurement strategies that make machine learning and inverse design tractable, and partner with modeling and AI colleagues to close the loop from proposed candidate to validated formulation
- Work with automation and engineering colleagues to move prototype workflows into production with reliable instrument control, structured data capture, and end-to-end robotics
- Justify and manage capital equipment and vendor relationships for the group; set the expectation on safe handling for its chemical footprint and hold the group to it
- Coordinate shared characterization capability and cross-domain campaigns with adjacent materials and chemistry groups
- PhD in Materials Science, Polymer Science, Chemical Engineering, or Chemistry with 8+ years of post-degree R&D experience, or equivalent depth built through industrial practice
- Experience leading scientific teams, whether as a formal manager or as a technical lead with direct responsibility for others' work
- Hands-on record formulating and characterizing multicomponent systems and translating structure-property relationships into performance
- Demonstrated delivery against external milestones with industrial partners or sponsored programs
- Comfort moving between strategy and bench-level troubleshooting, and leading a team split across multiple sites
- Depth in one or more application areas such as adhesives and coatings, printed electronics, energy materials, or consumer and personal care
- Experience taking formulations from lab through scale-up and manufacturability review
- Robotic or automated formulation, automated characterization, or self-driving lab environments
- Python proficiency for analysis, instrument control, or workflow orchestration
- Familiarity with EHS and regulatory constraints on formulated products
Visa & Work Authorization
- al employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status
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This listing is sourced directly from Lila Sciences's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.