Data Scientist II / Senior Data Scientist, Life Sciences

Lilasciences; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 104,000 - 161,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary with equity

Equity compensation

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence to accelerate discovery in life sciences. We seek a Data Scientist, Life Sciences to bridge wet-lab science, software engineering, automation, and AI, turning experimental data into actionable insights and scalable analyses.

You will collaborate with scientists, automation engineers, and ML engineers to ensure data flows and analyses reflect bench realities, building robust pipelines and reusable modules.

Qualifications

• Background in biological sciences, life sciences data, or bioinformatics.
• Strong Python proficiency for scientific data analysis (pandas, numpy, scipy).
• Solid grounding in applied statistics and exploratory data analysis.
• Experience eliciting, documenting, and validating requirements from scientific and technical stakeholders.
• Ability to identify unstated assumptions and clarify analytical requests.
• Experience producing reproducible, well-documented analyses.
• Strong communication with technical and bench scientists.
• Proactive, detail-oriented approach to ambiguous scientific problems.

Responsibilities

• Own requirements discovery across lab, automation, software, and AI teams.
• Translate experimental questions into well-scoped analyses.
• Develop bioinformatics and data-processing pipelines for raw assay outputs.
• Build reusable analysis modules to improve reproducibility across studies.
• Integrate analytical workflows with central data lake and AI platform systems.
• Identify gaps in LIMS flows, data management, and automation workflows.
• Document methods, assumptions, and results for technical and scientific audiences.

Skills

Python

Pandas

NumPy

SciPy

Statistics

Requirements gathering

Reproducible analyses

Communication

Bench-to-analytics bridging

Lab automation knowledge

Docker/Kubernetes

Flyte/Temporal

AWS fundamentals

Pydantic/pyright

Tools

Flyte

Temporal

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

Pydantic

Pyright

uv

Job description

Your Impact at LILA

Lila Sciences is building 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 applying AI to every aspect of the scientific method, enabling scientists to solve challenges in human health, climate, and sustainability at a pace and scale not previously possible.

At Lila, teams are deeply cross-functional and collaborative. We seek people with inclusive mindsets, diverse perspectives, and comfort working in creative, fast-moving environments. If this sounds like an environment you’d love to work in, even if you only have some of the experience listed below, we encourage you to apply.

We are seeking a Data Scientist, Life Sciences to join Life Sciences AI Data Science (LSAI-DS) and own the bridge between wet-lab science, software engineering, automation, and AI. This person will turn experimental data into actionable scientific insight, translate bench workflows into validated analytical requirements, and build reproducible analysis patterns that scale across life sciences programs.

This role is ideal for someone who combines life sciences depth, strong Python-based analysis skills, applied statistics, and user-centered thinking. You will work closely with scientists, automation experts, software engineers, and ML engineers to make sure data flows, analyses, and tools reflect what is actually happening at the bench.

What You'll Be Building

• Own requirements discovery across lab, automation, software, and AI teams.
• Translate experimental and operational questions into well-scoped analyses.
• Develop bioinformatics and data-processing pipelines for raw assay outputs.
• Build reusable analysis modules that improve reproducibility across studies.
• Integrate analytical workflows with centralized data lake and AI platform systems.
• Identify gaps in LIMS flows, data management, and automation workflows.
• Document methods, assumptions, and results for technical and scientific audiences.

What You'll Need to Succeed

• Strong background in biological sciences, life sciences data, or bioinformatics.
• Strong Python proficiency for scientific data analysis, including pandas, numpy, and scipy.
• Solid grounding in applied statistics and exploratory data analysis.
• Experience eliciting, documenting, and validating requirements from scientific and technical stakeholders.
• Ability to identify unstated assumptions and clarify ambiguous analytical requests.
• Experience producing reproducible, well-documented analyses.
• Strong communication skills with both technical collaborators and bench scientists.
• Proactive, detail-oriented approach to ambiguous scientific problems.

Bonus Points For

• Experience working with lab automation platforms or instrument data systems.
• Familiarity with common bioinformatics tools
• Experience with workflow orchestrators such as Flyte or Temporal.
• Knowledge of modern Python developer tools such as pydantic, pyright, or uv.
• Familiarity with AWS fundamentals and containerized workflows, including Docker or Kubernetes.

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

$140,800 — $217,800 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 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 iscommitted to equal employment opportunityregardless 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.