Director, Instrument Development Acceleration

Your Impact at LILA

Lila Sciences is seeking a relentless executor and strategic operator to spearhead our Instrument Development initiatives and lead our Virtual Lab Team. As the Director of Instrument Development Acceleration, you will be responsible for getting instruments online, fast, reliably, and  role is for someone who thrives in high-throughput environments and measures success in instruments shipped.

What You'll Be Building

• Set clear expectations, remove obstacles quickly, and keep the team focused on delivery over deliberation.
• Own the rapid design and development of laboratory instruments across the full lifecycle, from concept to operational in the lab, at high volume.
• Architect and implement integration frameworks connecting virtual laboratory environments with physical instrumentation and robotic systems.
• Maintain rigorous hardware-software integration standards, system performance benchmarks, and quality assurance processes without letting them become bottlenecks.
• Make pragmatic technical decisions across software, hardware, and systems integration that keep momentum, escalating only what truly needs escalation.
• Work tightly with AI researchers, software engineers, and robotics teams to drive fast, efficient system integration and deployment.
• Communicate clearly and concisely on status, blockers, and decisions to stakeholders at all levels.
• Build and refine lean development practices that prioritize speed, system reliability, and repeatable quality assurance.

What You'll Need to Succeed

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field. Ph.D. is a plus but not required.
• At least 10 years in engineering or technical leadership, with a proven record of delivering complex systems at scale and on time.
• Strong hands-on coding ability in C++, Python, or Java, with deep experience in hardware-software integration.
• Proven ability to lead complex systems integration across software, hardware, and robotic platforms.
• A problem-solver who makes decisions with imperfect information and keeps moving.
• Clear, direct communicator who can align engineers and stakeholders without unnecessary overhead.

Bonus Points For

• Experience with agile or lean development methodologies in high-throughput environments.
• Hands-on knowledge of AI, robotics, and simulation technologies as applied to laboratory instrumentation and automation.
• Experience with system monitoring, performance optimization, and QA in hardware-software environments.
• Track record of scaling teams and processes during periods of rapid growth.

Compensation

We offer competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity. Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact.

U.S. Benefits. Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-paid life and disability insurance; flexible time off with generous company wide holidays; paid parental leave; an educational assistance program; commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees; and a company subsidized lunch program.

International Benefits. Full-time employees outside the U.S. receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region. USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.

-based positions; international salaries are set to local market.

Expected Base Salary Range

$232,000-$304,000 USD

About LILA

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…