Senior Manager, R&D Hardware and Controls

🚀 About Lila

Lila Sciences is the world’s first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science.  We are pioneering a new age of boundless discovery by building the capabilities to apply AI to every aspect of the scientific method.  We are introducing scientific superintelligence to solve humankind's greatest challenges, enabling scientists to bring forth solutions in human health, climate, and sustainability at a pace and scale never experienced before. Learn more about this mission at  www.lila.ai

If this sounds like an environment you’d love to work in, even if you only have some of the experience listed below, we encourage you to apply.

🌟 Your Impact at Lila

We are seeking an experienced Senior Manager of R&D Hardware and Controls Engineering to lead a cross-disciplinary team of engineers tasked with exploring new technologies, de-risking bold ideas, and translating them into high-quality proofs of concept that can be scaled into production scientific instruments.

This role will help create an innovation pipeline through setting the strategies for early-stage development, rapid hardware iteration cycles, and ensuring that concepts are transformed into functional prototypes that accelerate learning, de-risk future designs, and inform product development.

The ideal candidate combines technical expertise, people leadership, and program management skills to drive innovation at pace.

🛠️ What You'll Be Building

• Leadership & Team Development
  • Lead, grow, and mentor a cross-functional team of research engineers focused on advanced development of high-throughput, robotic scientific instruments and systems.
  • Foster a culture of creativity, collaboration, safety and accountability within the team.
• Prototyping & Engineering Execution
  • Drive rapid experimentation and learning loops; institutionalize best practices for design of experiments, documentation, and knowledge transfer.
  • Provide technical direction and reviews for requirements, design, code and integration of complex mechatronic systems.
  • Collaborate closely with cross functional teams such as Automation, Experimentalists, and Operations Engineering to ensure early prototypes meet functional and performance needs and late-stage systems are ready for transfer into production systems.
  • Source and develop modular hardware and software infrastructure that increases prototyping throughput.
  • Be ready to roll up sleeves and get some hands-on time building and writing code alongside the team.
• Technical Direction & Strategy
  • Define and own the advanced development strategy, portfolio, and roadmap aligned to company and product objectives.
  • Define and track KPIs such as time-to-first-prototype, iteration velocity, TRL progression, and conversion rate to product.
  • Stay current on emerging technologies and prototyping methods to expand organizational capabilities.
• Program & Resource Management
  • Develop and manage budgets, timelines, and resource allocation for prototyping initiatives.
  • Prioritize competing requests and manage expectations across multiple stakeholders.
  • Partner with supply chain, vendors, and external partners to source specialized components and fabrication support.
  • Partner with Legal to shape IP strategy; drive disclosures, patents, and publications as appropriate.

🧰 What You’ll Need to Succeed

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Materials or related Engineering field.
• 10+ years of experience in hardware product development, with at least 3+ years in a management or team leadership role.
• Proven track record in prototyping, rapid iteration, and early-stage product development.
• Strong understanding of mechanical design, electrical systems, and/or system integration.
• Experience managing multi-disciplinary teams and cross-functional projects.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders across technical and business teams.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills with a results-oriented mindset.
• Strong Python and C++ experience

✨ Bonus Points For

• Experience in robotics, automation, microcontrollers, biotech hardware, materials science prototyping or other complex electromechanical systems.
• Clear decision-maker, rapid learner, with an appetite for speed. Fervent desire to coach a team in that direction
• Hands-on experience with machine shop tools, rapid prototyping equipment, or lab-scale fabrication.

🌈 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.

🤝 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.