Automation Engineer I/II, Sustaining Engineering & Lab Operations

Lila Sciences is hiring Automation Engineers for the AI Science Factory (AISF), the automated platform behind our work in drug discovery, bioengineering, and advanced materials. You will join Sustaining Engineering & Lab Operations (SELO), the group responsible for keeping the platform running and improving it. You own both halves of that: operating and recovering the workcells through your shift, and developing the changes that make them more reliable and higher throughput.

SELO is a multidisciplinary group of automation, mechanical, and controls engineers, staffed across shifts. Most problems worth your time cross those lines — a scheduling error that turns out to be a sensor, a throughput ceiling that turns out to be a gripper tolerance. You will bring the operational evidence and work the problem with them to a real fix.

The platform runs production across shifts, so improvement work is not something you fit into idle time. You plan it, negotiate the downtime with Research Operations, schedule it into an approved window, and verify the change held before returning the system to service. Doing that well takes as much coordination as engineering.

Handoff is part of the job rather than an afterthought. You give and receive a structured handoff at shift overlap, and document events, decisions, and open issues clearly enough that the other shift can act on them without coming back to you.

This is a full-time, on-site role in Cambridge, MA.

This role is shift-based, and we are hiring for both shifts:

• First shift — 7:00 AM–3:00 PM, weekdays
• Second shift — 2:00–10:00 PM, weekdays

The shifts overlap for one hour so the outgoing and incoming engineers can hand off directly. Shift assignments are permanent rather than rotating — you will not be moved between shifts. Both shifts carry the same responsibilities, the same level expectations, and the same development ownership. Let us know your preference when you apply.

• Own operation of the AISF workcells during your shift — triage instrument faults, software errors, and run failures as they surface, recover stalled runs, and decide what gets resolved in shift versus stabilized and carried across the handoff.
• Drive continuous improvement of the systems and workflows you operate: identify where reliability, throughput, or recoverability falls short, propose the change, and see it through implementation and verification.
• Plan improvement and maintenance work around live production — coordinate required downtime with Research Operations, schedule into approved windows, and confirm the change held before returning the system to service.
• Work with SELO mechanical and controls engineers to resolve problems spanning hardware, controls, integration, and software, bringing the operational evidence needed to find root cause.
• Execute preventive maintenance and calibrations on schedule, and coordinate vendor service, parts, and spares for issues in your scope.
• Coordinate with on-shift Research Operations scientists to prioritize recovery when multiple issues compete, and keep active experiments moving with their scientific constraints in view.
• Extend the runbooks, recovery playbooks, and diagnostic tooling the team works from, so the next engineer to hit a recurring problem resolves it faster.
• Document shift events, decisions, and open issues, and run structured handoff in both directions at shift overlap.
• Surface recurring failure patterns and process gaps to SELO so root causes and process weaknesses get addressed rather than absorbed.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, Materials Science, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• 1+ years of hands-on experience with lab automation, lab instrumentation, or production operations in a life sciences or physical sciences environment.
• Ability to troubleshoot electro-mechanical equipment and software systems independently and decide when to escalate.
• Strong written communication — you will be documenting problems for engineers on other shifts and handing off to a team that depends on the clarity of what you wrote.
• Ability to work effectively across disciplines with mechanical, controls, and software engineers, and with scientific teams.
• Comfort working in a live production environment where scientists depend on the systems you are working on.
• Availability to work either the first or second shift schedule listed above, on site in Cambridge, MA.

• Experience with liquid handlers, plate-based workflows, automated storage, or high-throughput screening instrumentation.
• Familiarity with lab scheduling or workflow orchestration software (Cellario, Overlord, Green Button Go, or similar).
• Scripting or light programming ability (Python, C#, or similar) for log analysis, diagnostics, or tooling.
• Familiarity with scientific processes and the constraints that come with them — sample stability, timing windows, reagent handling, and why a deviation matters to the result and not just to the run.
• Exposure to robotic integration platforms or multi-instrument workcell environments.
• Experience executing preventive maintenance programs or coordinating vendor service relationships.
• Background in a multi-shift or continuous operations environment where structured handoffs were part of the workflow.
• Experience with continuous improvement practices — measuring a system, changing it, and confirming the change held.

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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