Head, Soft Materials Experimentation & Autonomous Design

Lila Sciences, Inc.; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 156,000 - 214,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Equity opportunities

Job summary

Lila Sciences, Inc. in Cambridge, MA seeks a Principal Scientist / Associate Director to lead a four-person soft materials team. You will define experimental strategy, advance high-throughput workflows, and guide polymer processing and rheology studies while collaborating with ML colleagues to enable inverse design.

You will mentor staff, shape multi-year growth, and ensure program delivery with partner-funded and internal initiatives, including instrument control and data capture improvements.

Qualifications

• PhD in Materials Science, Polymer Science, Chemical Engineering or Chemistry with 8+ years of post-degree R&D.
• Experience leading scientific teams, either as a formal manager or technical lead.
• Deep soft-matter fundamentals: phase behavior, rheology, colloids, transport, crosslinking.
• Hands-on record formulating and characterizing multicomponent systems and structure–property relations.
• Delivery against external milestones with industrial partners or sponsored programs.
• Data-centric experimental practice: DoE, high-throughput methods, structured capture.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a group of scientists spanning formulation, polymer processing, and physical characterization.
• Own the experimental strategy for soft materials and measurement stack.
• Oversee high-throughput workflows, campaigns, and data quality across programs.
• Define measurement strategies that enable machine learning and inverse design.
• Coordinate with automation and engineering to move workflows toward production.
• Manage capital equipment and vendor relationships while ensuring safety standards.

Skills

Team leadership

Strategic planning

Soft matter fundamentals

DoE / high-throughput methods

Data-driven / ML collaboration

bench-to-production mindset

Python proficiency

Education

PhD in Materials Science, Polymer Science, Chemical Engineering, or Chemistry

Tools

Python

High-throughput characterization

Job description

Lila Sciences, Inc. in Cambridge, MA seeks a Principal Scientist / Associate Director to lead a four-person soft materials team. You will define experimental strategy, advance high-throughput workflows, and guide polymer processing and rheology studies while collaborating with ML colleagues to enable inverse design.

You will mentor staff, shape multi-year growth, and ensure program delivery with partner-funded and internal initiatives, including instrument control and data capture improvements.