Principal Network Engineer

Lila Sciences, Inc.; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 204,000 - 272,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Equity

Educational assistance

Commuter benefits

Lunch program

Job summary

Lila Sciences, Inc. seeks a Principal Network Engineer to own and scale our multi-site network spanning Cambridge, OCP, San Francisco, and London.

You will design, secure, and evolve the in-house network, while strengthening relationships with MSPs and driving the architecture for secure remote access and VLAN segmentation. You will set technical direction, mentor engineers, and partner with Identity, Endpoints, Security, and OT teams to deliver reliable, scalable networking across IT and lab

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive network engineering experience or equivalent depth across multi-site networks.
• Hands-on SD-WAN/SASE expertise with enterprise-grade platforms such as Cato Networks or similar.
• Experience securing and connecting IT and OT networks, segmentation, and secure remote access.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture, design, and roadmap for Lila’s global network (SD-WAN/SASE, firewalls, secure remote access).
• Lead VLAN, subnet, and segmentation design across IT, lab, and OT environments.
• Design IT/OT convergence patterns to keep labs safe, segmented, observable, and reliable.
• Drive network infra migration and hardening (firewall-to-SASE cutovers).
• Build visibility, monitoring, and telemetry to detect issues early.
• Mentor other engineers and manage MSPs/vendors; develop runbooks for self-service.
• Advise leadership on security, cost, reliability tradeoffs.

Skills

SD-WAN/SASE

Firewalls

Routing & Switching

VLAN Segmentation

Zero Trust

MSP Management

Mentoring

Network Architecture

Vendor Management

Tools

Cato Networks

Terraform

Job description

Lila's science factories run on a fast-growing, multi-site network that spans corporate offices, autonomous labs, and OT/robotics environments across Cambridge (Alewife), OCP, San Francisco, and London. As Principal Network Engineer, you will be the senior technical owner of that network: building the in-house engineering capability to design, secure, and scale it, while increasing the value and effectiveness of our managed service provider relationships.

You'll partner closely with Identity, Endpoints, Security, and OT/Controls engineering teams as we build the corporate engineering function. You’ll have real influence over the network architecture decisions that determine how quickly and safely we can bring new labs and AI Science Factories online.

This is a hands-on, senior IC role for someone who can set technical direction, operate deeply in the details, and shape the network engineering function as it matures.

What You’ll Be Building

• Own the architecture, design, and roadmap for Lila’s global network, including SD-WAN/SASE, enterprise firewalls, and secure remote access.
• Lead VLAN, subnet, and segmentation design across corporate IT, lab, and OT environments.
• Design IT/OT convergence patterns that keep production labs safe, segmented, observable, and reliable.
• Drive network infrastructure migration and hardening, including firewall-to-SASE cutovers and maintenance windows.
• Build network visibility, monitoring, and telemetry to detect issues before they affect scientists or lab operations.
• Establish scalable standards for DNS, IP addressing, and naming conventions across labs, buildings, and geographies.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for complex network incidents, and create runbooks that help the broader IT team self-serve.
• Manage network-focused MSPs and vendors while insourcing the highest-value engineering work over time.
• Mentor other network engineers and represent network engineering in planning for lab buildouts and facility expansions.
• Advise leadership on network architecture tradeoffs across security, cost, reliability, and delivery speed.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• Typically 10+ years of progressive network engineering experience, or equivalent depth in designing and operating multi-site networks.
• Deep hands-on expertise with SD-WAN/SASE platforms such as Cato Networks or similar.
• Strong experience with enterprise firewalls, routing platforms, switching, VLAN segmentation, and subnetting at scale.
• Experience securing and connecting both corporate IT and OT, industrial, or lab-instrumentation networks.
• Practical experience implementing network segmentation, zero-trust concepts, and secure remote access.
• Proven ability to manage MSPs and vendors while improving technical outcomes and accountability.
• Strong troubleshooting skills and comfort serving as the senior escalation point for production-impacting network issues.
• Excellent communication skills, including translating network architecture decisions for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Bonus Points For

• Experience in life sciences, biotech, pharma, or advanced manufacturing environments with lab automation or robotics on the network.
• Industry certifications such as CCNP/CCIE, JNCIP/JNCIE, or equivalent.
• Cloud networking experience with AWS VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, or similar.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code for network configuration, such as Terraform, Ansible, or similar.
• Familiarity with identity and access patterns, such as SSO/IdP, Keycloak, or similar, as they intersect with network and remote access design.
• Experience operating in SOC 2 or similarly regulated security environments.
• Prior experience building an internal network engineering function that reduced reliance on outside vendors or MSPs.

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

$204,000 - $272,000 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.

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 .

By submitting this application, you acknowledge that Lila Sciences will process your personal data for recruitment purposes. We'll retain your information for 12 months after the conclusion of the hiring process. For details on your rights and how we handle your data, see our Candidate Privacy Policy at lila.ai/candidate-privacy-policy-notice .