Platform Scientist, Soft Materials
Lila SciencesCambridge, Massachusetts, United States · Posted 1 month agoDescription
Your Impact at LILA
Lila Sciences is seeking Platform Scientists, Soft Materials Focus to ideate, prototype, and transfer new experimental concepts for AI Science Factories targeting complex and soft material systems. In this role, you will work at the forefront of scientific ideation—partnering with a broad range of chemistry, materials, and AI teams to define new approaches to formulation, structure–property relationships, and performance evaluation. You will translate these concepts into scalable experimental workflows, custom apparatus, and software-enabled systems for autonomous research.
What You'll Be Building
- Collaborate with diverse scientific teams to ideate new experimental strategies for soft and complex materials, including formulations, colloids, polymers, gels, and biological or hybrid systems
- Lead conceptual development of characterization and performance workflows leveraging techniques such as SAXS, SANS, rheology, and formulation performance assays
- Design, prototype, and validate custom apparatus, experimental methods, and software tools to realize these concepts
- Develop and refine workflows that connect structure, dynamics, and performance across multiple length and time scales
- Transfer successful prototypes into production-ready systems within Lila’s AI Science Factory platform, enabling autonomous experimentation
What You'll Need to Succeed
- MS or PhD in Materials Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Physics, or a related field, with a focus on soft or complex materials
- Demonstrated experience collaborating across scientific disciplines to generate and refine experimental concepts
- Hands-on experience with one or more of the following: SAXS, SANS, rheology, formulation performance or functional assays
- Experience designing and implementing custom experimental workflows and/or scientific software
- Strong programming skills (e.g., Python, C++, or similar) applied to data analysis, automation, or experiment control
- Excellent communication skills and comfort operating in a fast-paced, exploratory R&D environment
Bonus Points For
- Experience with lab automation, high-throughput experimentation, or instrument control software
- Background in formulation science (e.g., consumer products, coatings, energy materials, bio-soft matter)
- Experience linking scattering, rheological, and performance data to predictive or ML-driven models
- Familiarity with prototyping tools such as 3D printing, machining, microfluidics, or custom sample environments
- Industry or national lab experience working on soft materials or complex fluids
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.
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.
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.
Similar jobs
Est. 152,900 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is seeking a Computational Scientist I/II, Soft Matter Formulations - Complex Fluids to develop models, tools, and workflows that accelerate discovery across liquid and flowable soft mat…
Est. 152,900 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is seeking a Computational Scientist I/II, Soft Matter Formulations , Solids and Melts to develop models, tools, and workflows that accelerate discovery across polymeric and soft materia…
Est. 195,700 USD
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 Aut…
Est. 182,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is applying its autonomous science platform to some of the hardest materials discovery problems in the world — from next-generation structural materials and extreme-environment coatings…
Est. 350,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA We are looking for a Program Lead to own strategy and execution for Lila’s Materials Science AISF program. This role defines how and when the program delivers against Product, Science, and AI prioriti…
Est. 240,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Your role will involve applying computational condensed matter physics and electronic structure expertise to accelerate materials discovery, optimization, and understanding. You will use first-princip…
Est. 240,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA We are seeking a computational materials scientist to discover and optimize materials for electro-optic and photonic technologies. The role centers on understanding how composition, structure, defects…
Est. 354,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Own the technical direction for agentic AI systems applied to materials science at Lila. You will set and execute the roadmap for autonomous agents that plan, run, and interpret materials experiments,…
Est. 259,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is seeking a Research Engineer, Scientific Computing and ML/Physics Infrastructure to help turn promising research tools into robust, scalable systems. This role bridges research and pro…
Est. 147,333 USD
Your Impact at LILA We are seeking an Enterprise Account Lead, Materials to define how Fortune 500 energy, manufacturing, and materials companies engage with the world's first platform for scientific superintelligence. Y…
Est. 220,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is hiring a Director/ Senior Director, Product, Materials Chemistry: a strategic, cross-functional product leader who shapes the vision, roadmap, and execution for platforms that acceler…
Est. 150,600 USD
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 Aut…
Est. 99,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA We are seeking a motivated and detail-oriented Sr. RA/Associate Scientist to join our high-throughput Chemistry team. In this role, you will focus on hands-on high throughput experimentation, running…
Est. 220,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is hiring a (Senior) Director, Product, Electronic Materials: a strategic, cross-functional product leader who shapes the vision, roadmap, and execution for platforms that accelerate the…
Est. 194,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA We're building an AI-driven drug discovery factory that closes the loop between computational design and wet-lab experiment in days instead of months. The bottleneck for that loop is data: every compo…
Est. 147,333 USD
Your Impact at LILA We are seeking a Product Marketing Manager, Physical Sciences to lead go-to-market for Lila’s AI-driven materials and chemistry platform. You will operate at the convergence of: Physical science domai…
Est. 216,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join our Scientific System of Record Team and help build the next-generation AI-driven scientific platform. You will focus on developing user interfaces, se…
Est. 240,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Your role will involve applying computational methods and AI to accelerate the discovery and design of organic electronics materials. You will use first-principles modeling, atomistic simulations, sci…
Est. 232,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is building the software platform that makes automated scientific discovery possible. At the heart of that platform is data: raw outputs from laboratory instruments, experimental model r…
Est. 232,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA The Staff/Principal DevOps Engineer will drive the design, implementation, and optimization of our infrastructure and delivery platforms. This role bridges platform engineering, site reliability, and…
Est. 99,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is seeking a Senior Research Associate / Associate Scientist, Characterization to join the Materials Science team within the Autonomous Science Platform. This role focuses on operating,…
Est. 147,333 USD
Your Impact at LILA We are seeking an Enterprise Account Lead, Chemicals to define how Fortune 500 energy, manufacturing, and chemical companies engage with the world's first platform for scientific superintelligence. Yo…
Est. 224,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Join us in shaping the future of science! We are seeking Staff Software Engineers with backend experience to join our Lab Software Team (LaS), where you’ll collaborate with software engineers, lab sci…
Est. 163,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA As a Scientist II/Senior Melt Polymer Scientist on the Materials Formulation team at Lila Sciences, you will drive the development and optimization of solid polymers, such as hot melt adhesive systems…
Est. 186,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is building a new Customer Delivery & Success function, and we're looking for an Associate Director / Director, Customer Program Management to lead delivery for our physical sciences…
Est. 179,300 USD
Your Impact at LILA Lila Sciences is seeking a Computational Biophysics Scientist to help ensure that our AI agents can use biophysics tools in ways that are scientifically correct, reliable, and useful for drug discover…
Est. 192,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Join us in shaping the future of science! We are seeking Senior Software Engineers with full stack experience to join our Scientific System of Record Team (SSR), where you’ll collaborate with software…
Est. 177,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Join us in shaping the future of science! We are seeking Senior Software Engineers with backend experience to join our Lab Software Team (LaS), where you’ll collaborate with software engineers, lab sc…
Est. 345,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA As Lila scales its AI Science Factories globally, the VP of Engineering will create and sustain an engineering model for a unified, scalable platform for autonomous experimentation. This role will be…
Est. 192,000 USD
Your Impact at LILA Scientists shouldn't have to context-switch between a dozen tools to go from hypothesis to result. We're building the platform that makes this a reality — and we need engineers who want to solve probl…