Contractor, Electromechanical Technician

Socket.dev; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 34,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

Lila Sciences is seeking a Contract Electromechanical Technician to join our Hardware & Controls Engineering team. In this hands-on role, you will build, assemble, test, and troubleshoot custom automated instruments, workcells, and experimental equipment that support frontier research in life and physical sciences.

You will work closely with engineers, scientists, and automation specialists to translate designs into working systems, supporting rapid prototypes, buildouts, upgrades, and

Qualifications

• Associate degree or equivalent hands-on training in electromechanical tech.
• Strong mechanical assembly and electrical diagnostic skills with basic shop tools.
• Ability to read 3D CAD models, drawings, and electrical schematics.
• Experience wiring, cabling, pneumatics, fluids, or thermal systems.
• Familiarity with PLCs, motor controllers, actuators, sensors, and automation components.
• Knowledge of safe work practices, including LOTO and electrical safety.
• Strong troubleshooting, clear communication, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
• Ability to manage multiple build and integration tasks with limited supervision.

Responsibilities

• Assemble and calibrate custom electromechanical equipment from CAD drawings and schematics.
• Build test stands, fixtures, workcells, and experimental setups with engineering teams.
• Perform wiring, cable routing, and subsystem assembly for instruments and panels.
• Support integration, bring-up, and debugging across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and controls subsystems.
• Execute maintenance, repairs, upgrades, alignments, and troubleshooting on lab equipment.
• Provide engineers practical feedback on fit, serviceability, and design issues.
• Maintain clear documentation for builds, repairs, and troubleshooting steps.
• Follow lab safety practices and industry standards during fabrication, assembly, and testing.

Skills

mechanical assembly

electrical diagnostics

read CAD models

read schematics

PLC familiarity

safety practices

troubleshooting

multitask management

Education

Associate’s degree in electromechanical technology, mechatronics, industrial maintenance, or related field

Tools

SolidWorks

AutoCAD

Job description

Your Impact at LILA

Lila Sciences is seeking a Contract Electromechanical Technician to join our Hardware & Controls Engineering team. In this hands-on role, you will build, assemble, test, and troubleshoot custom automated instruments, workcells, and experimental equipment that support frontier research in life and physical sciences.

You will work closely with engineers, scientists, and automation specialists to translate designs into working systems. This includes supporting rapid prototypes, buildouts, upgrades, and integration work across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and controls subsystems.

This role is a practical bridge between design and execution. Your work will help the team move quickly from engineering concepts to reliable lab-ready hardware.

What You'll Be Building

• Assemble and calibrate custom electromechanical equipment and automated systems from CAD models, drawings, and schematics.
• Build test stands, fixtures, workcells, and experimental setups in partnership with engineering and science teams.
• Perform wiring, cable routing, component mounting, and subsystem assembly for instruments and automation panels.
• Support integration, bring-up, and debugging across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, optical, and controls subsystems.
• Execute maintenance, repairs, upgrades, alignments, and troubleshooting on complex lab equipment.
• Give engineers practical feedback during builds on fit, serviceability, assembly sequence, and design issues.
• Maintain clear documentation for builds, repairs, troubleshooting steps, and component history.
• Follow lab safety practices and industry standards during fabrication, assembly, and testing.

What You'll Need to Succeed

• Associate’s degree in electromechanical technology, mechatronics, industrial maintenance, or a related field, or equivalent military, vocational, or hands-on technical training.
• Strong mechanical assembly and electrical diagnostic skills, including hand tools, calipers, gauges, multimeters, and basic shop equipment.
• Ability to read and work from 3D CAD models, mechanical drawings, and electrical schematics.
• Experience assembling and troubleshooting electrical, cable, pneumatic, fluid, or thermal systems.
• Familiarity with PLCs, motor controllers, actuators, sensors, and industrial automation components.
• Practical knowledge of safe work practices, including LOTO, electrical safety, and lab or shop safety standards.
• Strong troubleshooting judgment, clear communication, and comfort working across engineering disciplines.
• Ability to manage multiple build, repair, and integration tasks with limited supervision.

Bonus Points For

• Experience supporting interdisciplinary R&D teams across mechanical, controls, automation, and software domains.
• Experience with 3D CAD tools, especially SolidWorks.
• Familiarity with AutoCAD or electrical schematic drafting tools.
• Experience assembling control panels, wiring PLCs, or working at the component level in automation systems.
• Experience with digital maintenance or documentation tools such as CMMS, ERP, Kanban, or wikis.
• Experience in automation, manufacturing, robotics, laboratory automation, or regulated R&D environments.

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 would 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.

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