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Salary: USD 108,000 - 170,000 / annual
Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™—an AI-driven operating system for science that autonomously executes the scientific method to accelerate discovery across medicine, materials, and energy. The company combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments.
As a Platform Scientist I/II for Functional Materials Instrumentation, you will design, integrate, and validate custom instruments and specialized hardware to fabricate, characterize, and test novel functional materials and devices. This role sits at the intersection of hardware design, materials science, solid-state physics, and automated experimentation.
Key responsibilities:
- Establish fabrication and measurement workflows for functional materials
- Specify, source, assemble, and validate custom synthesis and characterization systems, with emphasis on optical characterization methods
- Lead integration of instrumentation into autonomous lab and AI-driven experimental workflows
- Diagnose, iterate, and improve instrument designs based on experimental feedback
- Partner with computational, synthesis, and characterization teams to define which hardware capabilities to build next
Your work will directly accelerate current technical programs and strengthen Lila's platform offering for future customers. Success requires building lab capabilities that enable high-throughput, data-driven R&D in a fast-moving startup environment.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- PhD or equivalent experience in applied physics, materials science, chemistry, or related field
- Scientific domain expertise in functional materials (semiconductors, photonics, superconducting materials, etc.)
- Expertise in solid-state syntheses and characterization for functional materials
- Proven ability to build and integrate hardware for novel and high-throughput experimentation
- Ability to work in fast, data-driven, high-throughput R&D environments
Bonus qualifications:
- Proficiency in writing software for controls, data collection, and analysis
- CAD, machining/3D printing, and rapid prototyping for custom hardware
- Knowledge of AI/ML-driven discovery workflows or autonomous lab platforms
- Experience with class 4 lasers
