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Principal Scientist / Associate Director, Soft Materials Experimentation

Lila Sciences· Autonomous Science Platform
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Cambridge, MA USA$156k - $214kFull-timePosted 3w ago

About the role

Lead and grow the experimental soft materials team (formulations, polymers, colloids, gels, emulsions, inks, adhesives, and coatings) to develop high-throughput, data-driven workflows that enable active learning and inverse design in soft materials.

Responsibilities

  • Lead and grow a group of scientists spanning formulation, polymer processing, and physical characterization; set scientific direction, develop the team, and hire against an expanding portfolio
  • Own the experimental strategy for soft materials — the measurement stack, the campaign designs, and the scientific validity of what the group publishes internally and to partners
  • Hold your team's delivery on partner-funded programs alongside the technical program managers who own the programs themselves, setting the standard on timelines, throughput, and data quality
  • Build and validate high-throughput workflows spanning melt and solution rheology, scattering, thermal and mechanical analysis, microfluidics, and application-specific performance testing
  • Define the measurement strategies that make machine learning and inverse design tractable, and partner with modeling and AI colleagues to close the loop from proposed candidate to validated formulation
  • Work with automation and engineering colleagues to move prototype workflows into production with reliable instrument control, structured data capture, and end-to-end robotics
  • Provide technical depth on new opportunities: feasibility assessment, scoping, and customer-facing scientific engagement
  • Justify and manage capital equipment and vendor relationships for the group; set the expectation on safe handling for its chemical footprint and hold the group to it
  • Coordinate shared characterization capability and cross-domain campaigns with adjacent materials and chemistry groups

Qualifications

  • PhD in Materials Science, Polymer Science, Chemical Engineering, or Chemistry with 8+ years of post-degree R&D experience, or equivalent depth built through industrial practice
  • Experience leading scientific teams, whether as a formal manager or as a technical lead with direct responsibility for others' work
  • Deep soft-matter fundamentals: phase behavior, self-assembly, rheology, interfacial phenomena, colloid and dispersion stability, transport, cure and crosslinking
  • Hands-on record formulating and characterizing multicomponent systems and translating structure–property relationships into performance
  • Demonstrated delivery against external milestones with industrial partners or sponsored programs
  • Data-centric experimental practice: DoE, high-throughput methods, structured capture, and working with ML colleagues as a peer rather than a customer
  • Comfort moving between strategy and bench-level troubleshooting, and leading a team split across multiple sites

Skills

Required:Leadership and team buildingDoE and high-throughput experimentationData capture and ML collaborationStrategic planning and program managementCharacterization techniques

Benefits

  • Competitive base compensation with bonus potential
  • Generous early-stage equity
  • U.S. benefits: medical, dental, vision; life and disability insurance; flexible time off; parental leave; educational assistance; commuter benefits; lunch program
  • International benefits: region-specific programs; salary ranges USD for U.S.-based positions; international salaries set to local market
Last updated Sep 30, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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Pioneering Scientific Superintelligence

Pioneering Scientific Superintelligence to solve humankind’s greatest challenges.

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