Your Impact at LILA
Lila Sciences is hiring a Support Engineer I, Automation to keep second-shift operations humming on the AI Science Factory (AISF), the automated platform driving our work in drug discovery, bioengineering, and advanced materials. You will work 2–10 PM alongside the Integration Engineering and Research Operations teams, picking up where the day shift leaves off and keeping experiments moving into the evening.
The work is hands-on and varied. You triage issues on the workcells as they come up, recover stalled runs, knock out routine maintenance, and partner with on-shift Research Ops scientists to keep their work on track. At the end of the night, you hand the system back to the day team with a clear status report so tomorrow's science can start without surprises.
You will work closely with the engineers who designed the AISF — its schedulers, liquid handlers, robotics, and the software tying them together. This is a contract position, on site in Cambridge, MA.
What You'll Be Building
- Monitor and maintain AISF workcells during second shift, triaging instrument faults, software errors, and run failures as they surface.
- Coordinate with on-shift Research Operations scientists to prioritize recovery efforts and keep active experiments moving when multiple issues compete for attention.
- Troubleshoot electro-mechanical and software systems, using judgment about when to resolve in-shift versus stabilizing and handing off to day-shift engineers for fixes that need vendor support, parts, or extended downtime.
- Surface recurring failure patterns to the engineering team so root causes get addressed, not just symptoms.
- Run routine maintenance, setup, and teardown to keep workcells reliable across shifts.
- Document each shift's events, decisions, and outstanding issues so the day team inherits a clear picture and can plan accordingly.
What You'll Need to Succeed
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, Materials Science, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
- 1+ years of hands-on experience with lab automation, lab instrumentation, or production operations in a life sciences or physical sciences environment.
- Ability to troubleshoot electro-mechanical equipment and software systems independently — on second shift, you're the automation engineer on site.
- Strong written communication, particularly for shift handoff documentation the day team can act on without follow-up questions.
- Willingness and availability to work a 2–10 PM weekday schedule on site in Cambridge, MA.
Bonus Points For
- Experience with liquid handlers, plate-based workflows, or high-throughput screening instrumentation.
- Familiarity with lab scheduling or workflow orchestration software (Cellario or similar).
- Scripting or light programming ability (Python, C#, or similar) for log analysis or quick diagnostic work.
- Exposure to robotic integration platforms or multi-instrument workcell environments.
- Background in a 24/7 or multi-shift operations environment where structured handoffs were part of the workflow.
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 at www.lila.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.
We’re All In
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.
Information you provide during your application process will be handled in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy.
A Note to Agencies
Lila Sciences does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to Lila Sciences or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Lila Science’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of Lila Sciences, and Lila Sciences will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.