Senior Manager, Research Operations

Your Impact at Lila

Lila Sciences is seeking a deeply technical and rigorous leader to build and lead our Research Operations (Res Ops) organization. This role integrates high-throughput production of lab data, automation-assisted laboratory execution, quality control systems, operator career development, and continuous improvement into a unified operating engine that accelerates Lila’s path to scientific superintelligence (SSI).

You will architect the production and quality infrastructure that transforms cutting‑edge R&D into standardized, automated, continuously improving scientific operations—and build the team that will power that future. The remit of the Production and Quality functions are as follows:

• Validating scientific workflows directly on automated and semi‑automated lab equipment
• Executing experiments with accuracy and consistency
• Monitoring scientific and operational quality metrics across runs
• Generating high‑quality, fully observable datasets for AI model training
• Collaborating with domain scientists and AI researchers to realize closed‑loop learning

• Ensuring process consistency and scientific integrity
• Maintaining standard operating procedures and quality control frameworks
• Performing internal audits and supporting external audits
• Maintaining end‑to‑end data integrity and traceability
• Building a Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) infrastructure for quality assurance

• Design and lead the operational backbone for driving autonomous scientific discovery.
• Build and deploy the Production and Quality functions for application across life science, chemistry, and materials science.
• Drive the Research Operations team to maximize AI learnings from the lab.
• Establish and own a career development framework that nurtures the most energetic and brilliant minds in Research Operations, with paths spanning automation engineering, research science, technical and team leadership, and beyond.
• Partner with Software/Automation to establish observability dashboards, run‑booking systems, and data pipelines.
• Maintain audit‑ready traceability, deviations, investigations, and CAPA procedures where applicable.
• Build a team culture centered on safety, quality, scientific excellence, and professional growth.
• Manage vendor Service Level Agreements (SLA) including turnaround time, availability, and quality of research operations and coordinate with internal stakeholders (Lab Ops, procurement, and science/product teams).
• Manage multi‑shift coverage, cross‑training, and shared instrument scheduling.
• Work with domain scientists and automation engineers to validate scientific workflows before operationalization.

• 8+ years of experience across scientific R&D, high‑throughput labs, manufacturing, or instrumentation‑heavy environments.
• Substantial QA/QC and QMS experience.
• Demonstrated success leading multi‑layered scientific and operational teams.
• Expertise in workflow optimization and SOP/QMS development.
• Exceptional communication, incident management, and cross‑functional leadership skills.

• Experience with lab orchestration systems, automated workcells, and observability pipelines.
• Familiarity with molecular biology, protein science, chemistry, and materials science.
• Experience scaling operations from early‑stage to production.
• Technical leadership via publications, patents, or engineering community engagement.

Lila Sciences is the world’s first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science. We are pioneering a new age of boundless discovery by building the capabilities to apply AI to every aspect of the scientific method. We are introducing scientific superintelligence to solve humankind’s greatest challenges, enabling scientists to bring forth solutions in human health, climate, and sustainability at a pace and scale never experienced before.

Learn more about this mission a.ai.

We expect the base salary for this role to fall between $148,000–$198,000 USD per…