Scientist II/Senior Operations Research, Robotics

Lila Sciences • Cambridge, MA

10h • $228,000 - $358,000

About The Position

Your Impact at Lila
You will build and lead the algorithm development team responsible for orchestrating the autonomous laboratories that serve as the intelligent physical infrastructure of our scientific superintelligence platform. You will deliver the logic that translates scientific priorities into schedulable, dispatchable plans that adapt dynamically to real-time execution constraints. Beyond individual contribution, you will guide technical strategy and work cross-functionally with robotics, software, and leadership to deploy these solutions. Your work will accelerate our mission by enabling fully autonomous workflows for scientific discovery.
What You'll Be Building
Formulate the strategies for inter-connected optimization problems, defining how task allocation, scheduling, and dynamic routing interact under uncertainty in high-throughput automated laboratories.
Lead the hiring, mentorship, and technical direction for the orchestration algorithms team.
Design custom heuristics, policies, and meta-heuristics to handle NP-hard challenges in real-time.
Create simulations and standards used to model diverse lab scenarios, benchmark approaches, and identify bottlenecks before deployment.
Partner with robotics and software teams to ensure optimization models are successfully integrated into the real-world autonomous stack.

Requirements

• Ph.D. or M.S. in Operations Research, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Industrial Engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience
• Proven track record of developing and implementing algorithms that schedule/plan/route for real physical systems
• Deep expertise in discrete optimization, for example in mixed-integer programming (MIP), constraint programming (CP), network flow, etc.
• Ability to model complex temporal constraints and dependencies in dynamic environments
• Ability to work, communicate, and deliver cross-functionally on projects with evolving scope
• Strong software development skills, with experience deploying optimization logic into production environments
• Familiarity using a variety of commercial or open-source MILP/CP/hueristic solvers (e.g., Gurobi, CPLEX, Google OR-Tools, Hexaly, cuOpt, etc..)

Nice To Haves

• Management experience leading small teams of scientists and managing complex technical projects.
• Experience hiring into technical roles and establishing culture
• Experience developing solvers or benchmarking algorithms
• Strong publication record in optimization algorithms

Responsibilities

• Formulate the strategies for inter-connected optimization problems, defining how task allocation, scheduling, and dynamic routing interact under uncertainty in high-throughput automated laboratories.
• Lead the hiring, mentorship, and technical direction for the orchestration algorithms team.
• Design custom heuristics, policies, and meta-heuristics to handle NP-hard challenges in real-time.
• Create simulations and standards used to model diverse lab scenarios, benchmark approaches, and identify bottlenecks before deployment.
• Partner with robotics and software teams to ensure optimization models are successfully integrated into the real-world autonomous stack.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree