Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, Life Sciences

Your Impact at LILA We're seeking extraordinarily talented Forward Deployed Engineers across Engineer, Senior Engineer, and Lead Engineer levels to join our growing team. Our FDEs are high-performing generalists with a broad set of skills, in addition to depth in one or more focus areas.  As an FDE, you'll embed directly with our internal biotech and science teams as well as external customers, living their problems and rapidly building solutions that transform their research capabilities. You'll leverage our AI and software platform tools while developing bespoke features that address each customer's unique challenges. This isn't traditional software development—it's high-velocity, AI-fueled, high-impact engineering where you'll ship production code in days, not months. What You'll Be Building Developing, wrapping, and adapting domain-specific tools for molecular modeling, data analysis, process optimization, molecular modeling, and more Deploying custom, agentic scientific workflows that integrate with industrial instruments (PLCs, control software) and data systems (ERP, MES, SCADA) Building real-time data pipelines that transform messy scientific data into actionable insights Creating intuitive interfaces that make complex AI/ML capabilities accessible to scientists Architecting solutions that scale from proof-of-concept to enterprise-wide deployment What You'll Need to Succeed Background in biology, molecular science, or related scientific field Outstanding communication skills—you'll interface directly with both executives and the manufacturing line Experience with data engineering, ETL pipelines, and working with complex/messy datasets Strong full-stack development skills with the ability to work across backend, frontend, and data layers Exceptional problem-solving abilities and comfort with ambiguous requirements Knack for product discovery and ability to pass requirements back to the platform Willingness to travel to customer sites for frequent and extended deployments Bonus Points For Previous customer-facing or consulting experience Depth in controls engineering and machine learning Experience with scientific computing libraries (NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, RDKit) Familiarity with ML/AI implementation and deployment Familiarity with modern web technologies (TypeScript, React) What Makes a Great FDE Customer Obsessed : You're energized by understanding customer problems deeply and seeing your solutions drive real impact Fast Learner : You quickly grasp new scientific domains and translate complex requirements into elegant solutions Autonomous : You thrive with minimal supervision and take extreme ownership of customer success Collaborative : You work seamlessly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders Technically Versatile : You're comfortable jumping between technologies and picking up new tools as needed Ready to Transform Scientific Discovery? If you're excited about embedding with world-class scientists, shipping impactful solutions at startup speed, and building the future of scientific software, we want to hear from you. Join us in our mission to accelerate breakthrough discoveries that will define the next century of human progress. 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 $192,000 — $256,000 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 a