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Salary: USD 136,800 - 217,866 / annual
Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence to solve major challenges in medicine, materials, and energy. The company combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory instruments into an operating system for science that executes the scientific method autonomously.
You will lead Lila's dedicated platform evaluation function within the robotics organization. This team tests and benchmarks alternative robotics platforms—including mobile manipulators, AMRs, AGVs, and other form factors—against current production baselines using consistent methodology to ensure results are directly comparable for platform decisions.
As Senior Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineer and Team Lead, you will manage 2–3 engineers while remaining hands-on in the lab. You report to the Associate Director, Next Gen AI Robotics, and serve as the primary point of contact for platform evaluation results across the organization.
Team Leadership Responsibilities:
- Manage and mentor 2–3 Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineers
- Set the evaluation roadmap and prioritize which platforms and capabilities get tested
- Define and maintain the team's evaluation methodology and shared tooling to ensure comparable results across all platforms
- Own communication of findings, tradeoffs, and recommendations to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
Individual Contribution Responsibilities:
- Commission new robotics platforms from unboxing through integration with the software stack and infrastructure
- Run test suites spanning navigation, manipulation, pick-and-place, perception, and controls
- Integrate platforms with ROS2 and Nav2, adapting drivers, configurations, and interfaces for each robot
- Validate arm reachability and AMR maneuverability in Isaac Sim against models of lab environments before hardware testing
Requirements:
- Professional experience deploying robotics platforms in production, commercial, or applied R&D settings
- Experience leading or mentoring engineers on a hands-on hardware or robotics team
- Hands-on ROS2 and Nav2 experience in real deployments (not simulation alone)
- Experience with manipulation and pick-and-place, including motion planning, grasp execution, and controls for arms or mobile bases
- Direct experience with AMRs/AGVs, 6–7 DoF arms, grippers, and camera or lidar perception pipelines including calibration
- Experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim or equivalent simulation platform for reachability or navigation validation
- Track record building a process, framework, or standard from scratch and turning test results into decision-ready comparisons
Bonus:
- Evaluated or compared multiple robotics platforms or vendors head-to-head
- Experience with mobile manipulators (arm mounted on mobile base)
- Built internal tooling or frameworks for standardized robot testing
- Background in industrial, warehouse, logistics, or manufacturing automation
