Senior Machine Learning Engineer I, Physical Sciences

lilasciences

Cambridge, MA USA · Cambridge

Posted Feb 3, 2026

Full-time
Physical Sciences AI

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Job description

Your Impact at LILA

This Machine Learning Engineer for the Physical Sciences team focuses on building and operating end-to-end, scalable machine learning workflows that solve a diversity scientific use cases in materials, chemistry and physical sciences. Your work will advance research efforts on state-of-the-art algorithms to build towards scientific superintelligence across today’s greatest challenges in physical sciences.

What You'll Be Building

Design, implement, and maintain end‑to‑end ML pipelines (data ingestion, feature engineering, training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring).
Productionize models and services with robust testing, observability, and documentation in collaboration with cross-functional software teams and build CI/CD workflows and automated evaluations to ensure safe, frequent releases.
Collaborate with domain scientists and platform engineers to translate research insights into performant, scalable systems.
Contribute to technical design reviews, coding standards, and mentoring of best practices.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent industry experience.
Strong Python software engineering fundamentals (testing, packaging, typing); experience with machine learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, Huggingface, etc.).
Experience deploying ML services to production in cloud-based infrastructure (FastAPI/GRPC, containers, orchestration, cloud infra).
Hands‑on experience with model deployment in production systems (LLMs, multimodal models, databases, RAG) with strong debugging and profiling skills.
Clear communication and collaboration in cross‑functional settings.

Bonus Points For

Exposure to scientific or engineering domains (materials, chemistry, physics) and related data formats/benchmarks.
GPU optimization experience (CUDA, Triton, compilation, distributed training).
Prior contributions to open‑source ML or scientific software.
Experience with workflow orchestration, data provenance, or large‑scale compute environments.

Compensation

We offer competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity. Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact.

U.S. Benefits. Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-paid life and disability insurance; flexible time off with generous company wide holidays; paid parental leave; an educational assistance program; commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees; and a company subsidized lunch program.

International Benefits. Full-time employees outside the U.S. receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region. USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions; international salaries are set to local market.

Expected Base Salary Range

$148,000—$198,000 USD

About LILA

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. We believe science is the most inspiring frontier for AI. Rather than hard-coding expert knowledge into tools, LILA builds systems that can learn for themselves.

LILA combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments into an operating system for science that executes the entire scientific method autonomously, accelerating discovery at unprecedented speed, scale, and impact across medicine, materials, and energy. Learn more at www.lila.ai.

Guided by our core values of truth, trust, curiosity, grit, and velocity, we move with startup speed while tackling problems of historic importance. If this sounds like an environment you'd love to work in, even if you don't meet every qualification listed above, we encourage you to apply.

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.

Information you provide during your application process will be handled in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy.

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.