Senior II/ Staff Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineer

Lila Sciences, Inc.; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 137,000 - 218,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Life and disability insurance

Flexible time off with holidays

Parental leave

Educational assistance program

Commuter benefits (bike share) & lunch

Job summary

Lila Sciences, Inc. is seeking a Senior II/Staff Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineer in Cambridge, MA to lead a small team and directly contribute to hardware setup and testing.

You will define evaluation roadmaps, ensure comparable results across platforms, and drive decisions with cross-functional stakeholders. You will commission new robotics platforms, run end-to-end test suites, and validate navigation and manipulation in both real setups and Isaac Sim simulations.

Qualifications

• Experience deploying robotics platforms in production, commercial, or applied R&D settings.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers on a hands-on hardware or robotics team.
• Hands-on ROS2 and Nav2 experience in real deployments, not just simulation.
• Experience with manipulation and pick-and-place, including motion planning and grasp execution, plus arm/mobile base controls.
• Direct experience with AMRs/AGVs, 6 to 7 DoF arms, grippers, and camera or lidar perception pipelines including calibration.
• Experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim or equivalent simulation platform for reachability/navigation validation.
• Track record building a process, framework, or standard from scratch, turning test results into decision-ready comparisons.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor 2–3 Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineers.
• Set evaluation roadmap and prioritize platforms/tasks.
• Define and maintain evaluation methodology and shared tooling for comparability.
• Communicate findings, tradeoffs, and recommendations to leadership and stakeholders.
• Commission new robotics platforms from unboxing through integration with software/infra.
• Run test suites spanning navigation, manipulation, perception, and controls.
• Integrate platforms with ROS2/Nav2, adapting drivers and interfaces.
• Validate arm reachability and AMR maneuverability in Isaac Sim before hardware testing.

Skills

ROS2

Nav2

AMRs/AGVs

6-DoF arms

Grippers

Perception pipelines

Testing frameworks

Mentoring

Hardware integration

ROS-based integration

Tools

NVIDIA Isaac Sim

Simulation tooling

Job description

Senior II/ Staff Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineer

Cambridge, MA USA

Lila runs a dedicated platform evaluation function within our robotics organization. The team tests and benchmarks alternative robotics platforms, including mobile manipulators, AMRs and AGVs, and other form factors, against our current production baseline. Consistent methodology across platforms is the point: results have to be directly comparable to be useful for platform decisions.

As the Senior Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineer and Team Lead, you lead this team and stay hands-on. You define how we evaluate robotics platforms, build and prioritize the test roadmap, manage 2 to 3 engineers, and remain directly involved in hardware setup and test execution yourself.

You report to the Associate Director, Next Gen AI Robotics, and you are the primary point of contact for platform evaluation results across the broader organization. This is a lab role, not a purely managerial one.

What You'll Be Building

Team leadership

• Manage and mentor 2 to 3 Robotics Platform Evaluation Engineers
• Set the evaluation roadmap and prioritize which platforms and capabilities get tested, and when
• Define and maintain the team's evaluation methodology and shared tooling so results stay comparable across every platform tested
• Own communication of findings, tradeoffs, and recommendations to the Associate Director and cross-functional stakeholders

Individual contribution

• Commission new robotics platforms from unboxing through integration with our software stack and infrastructure
• Run test suites spanning navigation, manipulation, pick-and-place, perception, and controls
• Integrate platforms with ROS2 and Nav2, adapting drivers, configurations, and interfaces for each new robot
• Validate arm reachability and AMR maneuverability in Isaac Sim against models of our lab environments before hardware testing

What You'll Need to Succeed

• Professional experience deploying robotics platforms in production, commercial, or applied R&D settings
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers on a hands‑on hardware or robotics team
• Hands‑on ROS2 and Nav2 experience in real deployments, not simulation alone
• Experience with manipulation and pick‑and‑place, including motion planning and grasp execution, plus controls for arms or mobile bases
• Direct experience with AMRs/AGVs, 6 to 7 DoF arms, grippers, and camera or lidar perception pipelines including calibration
• Experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim, or an equivalent simulation platform, for reachability or navigation validation
• Track record building a process, framework, or standard from scratch, and turning test results into decision‑ready comparisons

Bonus Points For

• Evaluated or compared multiple robotics platforms or vendors head to head
• Experience with mobile manipulators, meaning an arm mounted on a mobile base
• Built internal tooling or frameworks for standardized robot testing
• Background in industrial, warehouse, logistics, or manufacturing automation

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

$136,800 - $217,866 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 .