Lab Operations Specialist

Lila Sciences, Inc.; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 68,000 - 103,000; Full time

Job summary

Lila Sciences, Inc. is seeking a Lab Operations Specialist to own equipment and spaces, manage inventories, and coordinate logistics across the labs. You’ll work closely with EH&S, Facilities, and procurement to ensure compliance and smooth operations.

You will lead improvements, mentor associates, and onboard scientists to lab operations workflows, while handling preventive maintenance, calibration, and relocations in a fast-paced lab environment.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in lab operations or lab management.
• Experience managing and troubleshooting scientific equipment, including PMs, calibration, installs, and moves.
• Experience with lab inventory, asset, or work-order systems such as CMMS, ChemInventory, Jira, or Notion.
• Excellent communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to lift up to 40 lbs, work hands-on, and move around the lab for extended periods.

Responsibilities

• Own equipment lifecycle, including preventive maintenance, calibration, troubleshooting, asset tagging, and CMMS tracking.
• Coordinate equipment installs, setup, moves, relocations, decommissions, and specialized or heavy-lift installs.
• Manage consumables, PPE, gas, dry ice, cold-storage programs, and inventory systems.
• Coordinate shipping, receiving, courier, warehouse, sample, and equipment logistics.
• Partner with Design and Facilities on new lab spaces, layouts, bench allocation, and room conversions.
• Manage vendor relationships, service scheduling, installation logistics, and the Lab Ops support-ticket queue.
• Respond to equipment and cold-storage alarms, and support EH&S and Procurement on compliance needs.
• Lead lab-efficiency improvements, mentor Lab Operations Associates, and onboard scientists to lab operations workflows.

Skills

Lab operations

Equipment maintenance

Project prioritization

Communication

Safety/compliance

Tools

CMMS

ChemInventory

Jira

Notion

Job description

Your Impact at LILA

Lab Operations is the operational backbone that lets science move quickly. As a Lab Operations Specialist, you'll own the equipment, spaces, materials, and logistics that keep our labs running, and make them better as you go.

What You'll Be Building

• Own equipment lifecycle, including preventive maintenance, calibration, troubleshooting, asset tagging, and CMMS tracking.
• Coordinate equipment installs, setup, moves, relocations, decommissions, and specialized or heavy-lift installs.
• Manage consumables, PPE, gas, dry ice, cold-storage programs, and inventory systems.
• Coordinate shipping, receiving, courier, warehouse, sample, and equipment logistics.
• Partner with Design and Facilities on new lab spaces, layouts, bench allocation, and room conversions.
• Manage vendor relationships, service scheduling, installation logistics, and the Lab Ops support-ticket queue.
• Respond to equipment and cold-storage alarms, and support EH&S and Procurement on compliance needs.
• Lead lab-efficiency improvements, mentor Lab Operations Associates, and onboard scientists to lab operations workflows.

What You'll Need To Succeed

• 3+ years of experience in lab operations or lab management, preferably in a physical sciences environment.
• Experience managing and troubleshooting scientific equipment, including PMs, calibration, installs, and moves.
• Strong technical and functional skills, with the ability to manage priorities across multiple projects.
• Experience with lab inventory, asset, or work-order systems such as CMMS, ChemInventory, Jira, or Notion.
• Experience coordinating vendors for service, installs, moves, and logistics.
• Excellent communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Working understanding of lab safety practices and comfort partnering with EH&S on waste streams and compliance.
• Ability to lift up to 40 lbs, work hands-on, and move around the lab for extended periods.

Bonus Points For

• 5S, Six Sigma, or other process-improvement training.
• Chemical safety background, biohazard waste handling certification, or OSHA/HazMat certification.
• Experience with equipment install or relocation projects, CMMS administration, or vendor management.
• Experience supporting lab automation, robotics, or high-throughput environments.
• Background in chemistry, biology, materials science, or a related field.

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: $68,000 USD - $102,667 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 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.