Director, Data Science

🚀 About Lila Sciences

Lila Sciences is the world’s first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science.  We are pioneering a new age of boundless discovery by building the capabilities to apply AI to every aspect of the scientific method.  We are introducing scientific superintelligence to solve humankind's greatest challenges, enabling scientists to bring forth solutions in human health, climate, and sustainability at a pace and scale never experienced before. Learn more about this mission at  www.lila.ai

At Lila, we are uniquely cross-functional and collaborative. We are actively reimagining the way teams work together and communicate. Therefore, we seek individuals with an inclusive mindset and a diversity of thought. Our teams thrive in unstructured and creative environments. All voices are heard because we know that experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way.

If this sounds like an environment you’d love to work in, even if you only have some of the experience listed below, please apply.

🌟 Your Impact at Lila

Lila Sciences is seeking a Director of Data Science to join our Life Science Research department and serve as a strategic, hands-on leader supporting teams of wetlab biologists, AI researchers, and automation engineers. In this role, your primary responsibility will be for enabling the construction of Lila’s Scientific Superintelligence platform through leadership in statistical methods, experiment design, establishment of best practices for wetlab-drylab integration, and bioinformatic/cheminformatic data engineering. You will recruit and manage a group of data scientists and engineers that work hand in hand with wetlab-based scientists and engineers. You will be accountable for delivering robust, productionized methods for performing molecular design and studying new biology within Lila’s platform.

🛠️ What You'll Be Building

• Define a long-term data vision aligned with scientific roadmaps
• Establish, lead, build, and mentor a group of data science and bioinformatics scientists and engineers dedicated to integration with wet lab-based scientists and engineers
• Lead company-wide leadership in statistical methods for biological experiment design and analysis
• Establish best practices for wet lab-dry lab integration
• Lead bioinformatic and cheminformatic data engineering
• Establish policies for data quality, lineage, security, and FAIR compliance across LIMS, ELN, and auxiliary data stores
• Architect robust data-flow pipelines that ingest raw instrument output, perform automated QC, and store canonical datasets in LIMS and ELN systems
• Integrate best-in-class tools for lab data capture and workflow orchestration
• Partner with Platform Team to ensure reproducible, version-controlled environments (Docker/Kubernetes) for analytics workloads

🧰 What You’ll Need to Succeed

• 10+ years of experience in bioinformatics and/or biological data science
• 2+ years leading a team as a people manager or program leader
• Deep technical knowledge of one or more of the following: protein, mRNA, DNA therapeutics and cell therapy design
• Expertise in the application of AI/ML approaches to biomolecule design and/or experimental design
• Deep understanding of data capture from lab instruments (e.g., plate readers, LC-MS, NGS sequencers) and mapping raw outputs into structured schemas
• Demonstrated success architecting and scaling LIMS/ELN solutions, data warehouses, and real-time data-flow pipelines
• Fluency with modern analytics stacks: Python/R, Spark, SQL, containerization, CI/CD, and cloud services (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to translate data insights to both scientific and executive audiences
• Enthusiasm and passion for working with computational and wet lab scientists

🌈 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.

🤝 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.