Scientist, Flow Chemistry

Lila Sciences • Cambridge, MA

2h • $108,000 - $144,000

About The Position

As a Scientist on our Physical Sciences team, you will contribute to the development of cutting-edge flow chemistry workflows. You’ll help design, build, and optimize flow chemistry platforms that integrate real-time analytics, advanced control strategies, and AI-driven decision-making. In this role, you’ll work closely with systems engineers and AI scientists to help expand autonomous chemistry capabilities and accelerate discovery at scale.

Requirements

• Ph.D. or M.S. in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, or a related field.
• ≥ 1 years (for PhD, 4+ years for M.S ) of hands-on experience in flow chemistry, microfluidics, or microreaction engineering.
• ≥ 1 years of experience with automation, instrumentation, and integrating real-time analytics into experimental workflows.
• Strong background in homogeneous chemical catalysis and organic synthesis.
• Proficiency in Python for scripting, data analysis, and instrument control.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience working in an autonomous or self-driving lab chemical lab environment driving organic chemistry transformations.
• Familiarity with cloud-based instrumentation control and orchestration.
• Hands-on experience with AI-driven experimental design or Bayesian optimization.
• Background in scaling workflows from proof-of-concept to routine, high-throughput operation.
• Contributions to open-source lab automation or scientific software projects.

Responsibilities

• Design & Commission: Architect and develop versatile flow chemistry platforms for autonomous synthesis, ensuring seamless integration with the Lila platform.
• Integrate & Scale: Build, control, and optimize flow reactors and inline analytics. Interface flow chemistry platforms with robotic and sensing systems.
• Workflow Optimization: Tune flow chemistry platform design and software pipelines for high-throughput closed-loop experimentation with rich metadata capture.
• Closed-Loop Execution: Collaborate with AI teams to run iterative experiments in real time, enabling fast optimization and discovery cycles.
• Collaboration & Documentation: Work with chemists, material scientists, engineers, and data scientists to document systems, share insights, and refine best practices in autonomous flow chemistry.

Benefits

• We expect the base salary for this role to fall between $108,000–$144,000 USD per year, along with bonus potential and generous early equity.
• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees