Director, Sustaining Engineering & Lab Operations

Director, Sustaining Engineering & Lab Operations

Cambridge, MA USA

Lila is building AI Science Factories (AISFs) — highly automated, AI-directed labs that generate the proprietary experimental data powering our AI platform. As we scale from one AISF to many, the operational infrastructure that keeps those factories running is a first-class strategic capability.

The Director of Sustaining Engineering & Lab Ops owns that execution layer:
fleet reliability, incident response, AISF health, root cause analysis, site-level continuous improvement, and the execution of platform releases and change control at the site — alongside the operational foundation that makes it possible (consumables, reagents, CMMS, asset management, PM, first-response maintenance, multi-shift logistics).

This role will build out Lila's Local Site Sustaining Engineering capability from the ground up, incorporating Maintenance Engineering (ME) as a sub-function. It reports solid-line to the VP, ASP Strategy and Operations with a dotted line to the Director of Sustaining Engineering (Global / Cambridge Core Engineering) for platform standards, change control, and equivalence evidence. The function executes within centrally defined platform constraints and feeds structured signal back to Global Engineering through the operating cadences defined in the ASP Engineering operating model.

You’ll define the operating model, lead its expansion to new sites, drive AI-enabled innovation in equipment health and lab operations, and author the standards that travel with every AISF we open. You’ll be a principal contributor to the Blueprint program — the global deployment framework defining how Lila builds and runs AISFs at scale.

What You’ll Be Building

The site-level execution layer described in the ASP Engineering operating model — executes within centrally defined platform constraints and feeds structured signal back to Cambridge Core Engineering.

• Build the Local Site Sustaining Engineering function from scratch in partnership with HCE and Global Engineering; incorporates Maintenance Engineering (instrument PM, calibration, first-response troubleshooting) as a sub-capability
• Own fleet reliability, incident response, and AISF health at the site — on-call rotations, severity policy, incident playbooks, RCA library
• Own deployment, commissioning, and operational readiness; partner with the Deployment Project team during stand-up and own steady-state post-handoff
• Execute the two-lane change model
  : route platform-critical changes (Lane
  
  A) through Global Change Control; manage bounded site-local changes (Lane
  
  B) within explicit guardrails; document and time-box emergency-path bypasses
• Provide the site signature for the dual-signoff go-live model (Platform Release Certification + Site/Workcell Commissioning acceptance)
• Drive site-level continuous improvement within platform guardrails; surface candidates for promotion into platform releases
• Triage equipment health data and act on drift signals and re-qualification triggers defined by the Equivalence Review
• Define escalation and handoff protocols between Sustaining, ME, Lab Ops, Research Ops, and HCE/Automation
• Represent the site in standing cadences:
  Platform Change Control, Release Readiness Review, Fleet Health Review, Equivalence Review
• Define and own the operating model across Lila sites — from single-shift pilot to multi-site, continuous operations
• Establish org structure, staffing model, and governance framework
• Set and track KPIs (fleet uptime, MTTR, RCA close-out rate, drift response time, inventory accuracy, stockout rate, PM compliance, asset data integrity, ticket resolution); drive structured improvement cycles

• Own end-to-end supply chain continuity for lab consumables, reagents, and PPE across all shifts and sites
• Govern par-level inventory, reorder triggers, cold storage, and expiry tracking
• Lead dual-source qualification for high-risk consumables; build the satellite site supply chain playbook for Blueprint

• Support CMMS implementation and governance; accountable for…