Your Impact at LILA

We are seeking a motivated and detail-oriented Associate Engineer to join our high-throughput Research Operations team. In this role, you will focus on materials characterization of materials using spectroscopy and microscopy techniques

You will gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art automation technologies while contributing directly to projects that drive our company’s growth.

This is an excellent opportunity for candidates excited to learn engineering principles, work with advanced laboratory automation, and develop a strong foundation in scientific operations in a dynamic environment.

What You'll Be Building

• Perform materials characterization techniques including SEMXRF, XRD, Optical Microscopy, Nanoindentation, and Profilometer
• Prepare reagents, solutions/electrolytes , samples, and consumables to ensure seamless continuation of experiments across shifts
• Follow detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure accuracy, reproducibility, and throughput
• Monitor workflow performance, troubleshoot common issues, and escalate when necessary to ensure continuity between shifts
• Record, organize, and maintain experimental data with high attention to detail
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency and streamline processes across shift operations
• Flag unusual features or results for scientist review
• Collaborate with scientists and engineers to support diverse projects across life sciences and physical sciences

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Physics, Chemical/Materials Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent laboratory experience)
• Attention to detail and strong organizational skills
• Basic understanding of electron microscopy principles
• Hands-on SEM experience (academic or industry). EDS experience is nice to have.
• Experience with sample preparation techniques: sputter coating

Bonus Points For

• Familiarity with surface characterization techniques methods: XRF, optical microscope, XRF, XRD, nanoindentor, profilometer.
• Experience working in high-throughput production environments with a focus on scalability, efficiency, and accuracy
• Basic engineering skills for troubleshooting characterization tools for microscopes, x rays, and lasers
• Familiarity with automated workflows and techniques to operate and generate custom scripts

Your Impact at LILA

As a member of our team in the Physical Sciences division, you will shape the ML- and agent-driven infrastructure that enables Lila’s scientific superintelligence to autonomously construct, execute, and interpret complex physics simulations. Your work will focus on building the core systems that allow AI agents to reason over and control computational experiments, spanning from electronic structure calculations to surrogate-driven atomistic modeling, and beyond. Your work will directly influence how autonomous computational processes will explore chemical and materials landscapes with unprecedented autonomy and robustness.

What You'll Be Building

• Architect and implement agentic frameworks that support dynamic, multi-stage simulation workflows for scientific tasks
• Develop pipelines enabling agents to autonomously plan, schedule, execute, and interpret computational tasks at scale
• Build integration layers and APIs that connect ML models, large-scale simulation engines, databases, and heterogeneous compute platforms.
• Work with AI researchers to productionize agent behaviors, including tool-use strategies, simulation-aware decision loops, and adaptive task planning.
• Improve the robustness, modularity, performance, and reproducibility of agent-driven computational workflows; build internal tooling for debugging, observability, and validation.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• MS/PhD or equivalent experience in Computer Science, ML/AI, Scientific Computing, or a related technical field.
• Strong experience building ML-driven pipelines, workflow systems, or tool-use frameworks, ideally for complex or scientific applications.
• Proficiency in Python and ML ecosystems; experience with one or more compiled languages (e.g., C++, Rust, Julia) is beneficial.
• Familiarity with large-scale scientific or engineering software, including integrating external tools into automated computational workflows.
• Experience with distributed systems, HPC environments, cloud platforms, or accelerator-based computing.
• Deep understanding of modern ML architectures and their deployment in production systems (e.g., GNNs, transformers, diffusion models, multimodal or tool-using models).
• Strong engineering fundamentals: reproducibility, testing, modular design, CI/CD, and scalable ML operations.

Bonus Points For

• Experience developing or integrating agentic frameworks, autonomous ML pipelines, or multi-step tool-using agents, particularly for scientific applications
• Background in large-scale simulation frameworks, scientific workflow orchestration, or automated computational experiment platforms.
• Contributions to open-source ML infrastructure, workflow engines, agent frameworks, or scientific software ecosystems.
• Familiarity with data-centric engineering practices: streaming systems, provenance tracking, distributed metadata services, or large-scale data orchestration.
• Experience with workflow orchestration systems (e.g., Flyte, Prefect, Airflow) and container orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with materials science simulation codes (VASP, LAMMPS) or workflow frameworks (atomate, aiida) is a plus but not required.
• Expertise in advanced ML techniques relevant to agentic reasoning (planning models, self-improving systems, multi-tool agents, RLHF/RLAIF workflows).

About the role

Sana Biotechnology is growing, and we are hiring new team members who believe in the potential of engineered cells as medicines, who are passionate about delivering the possible to patients, and who lead with the desire to work on novel ideas.  As an MSAT Engineer, you will report to the Executive Director of MSAT and support manufacturing of Sana’s stem cell-derived pancreatic islet cell program for persons with type 1 diabetes (SC451).  You will support technology transfers to external manufacturing partners.  This will include authoring sections of process descriptions and master batch records.  You will travel to the manufacturing partner to train operators and provide in-suite support as person-in-plant during phase 1 clinical manufacturing.  You will participate in investigations leveraging RCA tools. You will compile run summaries, track process performance indicators, and periodically update stakeholders on manufacturing progress.

What you’ll do

• Support technology transfers and author technical documents including reports, standard operating procedures, master batch records, and work instructions
• Travel to external manufacturing partners to serve as person-in-plant, train manufacturing operators, and oversee process execution
• Review executed batch records, collaborate with QA to close process deviations, analyze manufacturing trends, and recommend improvements
• Support investigations to troubleshoot process execution challenges including root cause analysis
• Collaborate with Research and PD teams to learn and document the process, and execute studies in the PD lab
• Demonstrate ability to engage and effectively influence team members across multidisciplinary teams while prioritizing multiple projects and meeting deadlines
• Drive curiosity, scientific rigor and excellent problem-solving skills across a fast-paced performance driven environment

What we’re looking for

• Bsc. in Chemical, Biological, or Biomedical Engineering plus 4 yrs or MSc plus 2 yrs or equivalent combination of education and work experience
• >1 year experience supporting early phase cell therapy manufacturing
• Well versed with cGMP requirements and working in a regulated environment, including experience as person-in-plan and/or GMP operator
• Detail-oriented with good problem-solving, technical writing and verbal communication skills
• Ability to effectively work in multidisciplinary teams, meet deadlines, and prioritize multiple projects
• Aptitude for working in a self-driven, performance/results-oriented, fast-paced matrix environment

What will separate you from the crowd

• Knowledge of PSC culture and differentiation biology to pancreatic islets
• Experience with key cell therapy equipment and unit operations to support phase 1 clinical trials
• Working knowledge of statistical design of experiments (DoE) and RCA
• Experience working in grade B / ISO 7 cleanroom
• Understanding of analytical methods such as flow cytometry
• Excellent technical writing skills, including drafting technology transfer packages
• Familiar with data analysis tools such as R, Python, JMP and FlowJo software

What you should know

• Travel to the manufacturing site up to 50% of the time (Texas and Canada)
• Work in a laboratory environment ~25% of the time
• Some weekend work required
• Lift up to 25 lbs
• Work within a cleanroom environment
• The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $120,000 and $150,000/year; however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience