Contractor, Robotics Engineer

Lila's Autonomous Science Platform is building a closed-loop, AI-driven scientific facility, and inter- and intra-cell transport in the AISF is a critical bottleneck on that path. We're bringing on a Robotics Engineer on a temporary basis to help unblock it.

Sitting on the Next Gen Robotics team and based at Alewife, you'll work hands-on across the robotics stack — physical hardware and simulation — to integrate, tune, and debug systems that have to run reliably in production. The work spans ROS2 development, motion planning, and real-world hardware integration, with upstream science projects (including
-GRIDv1) gated on what you ship. This is a 3-month contract with potential to extend and potential to convert to full-time based on performance and ongoing need.

• Develop ROS2 nodes, launch files, and message/service/action interfaces to support inter- and intra-cell transport workflows
• Bring up and integrate physical robotic systems — including arms, AMRs, or mobile manipulators — into the AISF environment
• Build and maintain simulation environments in Isaac Sim and/or Gazebo to de-risk hardware deployments before they hit the floor
• Debug hardware and software integration failures end-to-end: kinematics, calibration, timing, and sensor issues
• Contribute domain depth in motion planning, navigation, localization, perception, or sensor fusion as the team's needs evolve
• Document configurations, failure modes, and operating procedures so the team can scale and maintain what you deploy

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field, or equivalent hands‑on industry experience
• Strong experience with ROS2: node development, launch files, message/service/action interfaces
• Solid understanding of robot kinematics — forward/inverse kinematics, Jacobians, transforms
• Proficiency in at least one robotic simulation platform: NVIDIA Isaac Sim and/or Gazebo
• Demonstrated experience working with physical robots — robotic arms, AMRs, and/or mobile manipulators
• Depth in at least one of: motion planning (MoveIt2, trajectory generation), autonomous navigation (Nav2), localization (SLAM, AMCL), perception (object detection, depth sensing), or sensor fusion (IMU, LiDAR, camera integration)

• Experience deploying robotic systems to production or field environments
• Strong Python and/or C++ in a ROS2 context
• Ability to debug hardware/software integration issues independently
• Experience in lab automation or scientific environments

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 a.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.

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.