Contract, Technical Writer, Life Sciences

Lila Sciences•Cambridge, MA

About The Position

LILA Science is seeking a Life Sciences Technical Writer to join their Government sector team. This role serves as a crucial link between life sciences researchers and government clients, translating complex technical findings into clear, credible, and decision-ready language. The position involves working closely with the Grants Manager on proposal development, ensuring scientific accuracy and rigor in all deliverables. This is a strategic communication role requiring scientific fluency and strong communication skills to effectively engage non-specialist audiences. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in grant writing, ideally securing their own research funding, and experience leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity. The role focuses on translating science for government audiences, supporting proposal and grant applications, building a content library, developing AI-augmented workflows, creating technical and regulatory documentation, and producing visual communication materials.

Requirements

PhD in a life sciences discipline (molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, immunology, neuroscience, genomics, biomedical engineering, or closely related field).
Demonstrated track record of grant writing success, including proposals that have been awarded.
Demonstrated experience translating complex scientific or technical content for non-technical audiences, ideally in a government, policy, or regulated environment.
Scientific literacy sufficient to hold substantive conversations with researchers, represent their work accurately, and push back when claims are imprecise or unsupported.
Exceptional written communication skills, with proven ability to write clearly and concisely for executives, clients, and non-specialist stakeholders.
Hands-on experience using AI tools (LLMs, AI writing assistants, or similar) in professional workflows: active, habitual use, including comfort building lightweight tools or automations to streamline repetitive writing and documentation tasks.
Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple deliverables across parallel programs and tight timelines.
Eligibility to obtain a US security clearance.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience writing technical content for major life sciences funders (NIH R01, U01, program project, or cooperative agreements; ARPA-H; BARDA; UK funding applications such as UKRI councils MRC and BBSRC, NIHR, ARIA, Innovate UK).
Experience securing your own research funding (F31, F32, K-series, dissertation awards, postdoctoral fellowships, or equivalent independent grants in the US or UK), or translating seed/pilot funding into larger follow-on awards.
Active US security clearance.
Experience supporting a grants or business development function in a research or government-adjacent organization, including familiarity with study protocols, data management plans, biosafety documentation, and translational or preclinical reporting standards.
Ability to create clear figures, schematics, and visual summaries for broad audiences, with experience designing or managing a content library or documentation repository.

Responsibilities

Translate Science for Government Audiences: Work directly with Lila scientists to understand their research and produce briefings, white papers, and executive-level reports for government clients, program officers, and agency stakeholders.
Proposal & Grant Support: Partner with the Grants Manager to develop technical and scientific components of proposal applications for various life sciences initiatives, ensuring consistency and compliance.
Content Library & Knowledge Management: Build and maintain a repository of reusable, version-controlled technical content for efficient adaptation across proposals and programs.
AI-Augmented Workflows: Actively use LLMs and AI tools to accelerate drafting, editing, and summarization, and design automations to scale the technical writing function.
Technical & Regulatory Documentation: Develop and maintain program documentation (SOPs, study protocols, risk assessments, etc.) and regulatory-ready packages aligned to US and UK frameworks.
Visual Communication: Create figures, diagrams, flowcharts, and presentation materials to make research milestones and outcomes legible to non-specialist audiences.