Scientist II/Senior Scientist, Solid-State Materials

The posting, as Lila Sciences wrote it

Your Impact at LILA

As a Scientist II/Senior Scientist on the Vacuum Synthesis team at Lila Sciences, you will advance the design and synthesis of functional inorganic solid-state materials in support of Lila's autonomous science platform. You will design and execute multi-step preparations across diverse chemical systems, turning phase-diagram and crystal-chemistry reasoning into prioritized synthesis pathways and experimental feedback. You will partner with other synthetic materials scientists, characterization scientists, ML researchers, and systems engineers to close the synthesis-characterization-modeling loop and accelerate Lila's path to scientific superintelligence in functional materials.

What You'll Be Building

• Design and execute synthesis campaigns across multiple chemical systems and structure families, drawing on the breadth of solid-state preparative chemistry (melt routes, flux, vapor transport, soft-chemical, topochemical, single-crystal growth, and unconventional or high-pressure environments as the target phase demands).
• Translate phase-diagram, crystal-chemistry, and structure-property reasoning into concrete, prioritized synthesis pathways for novel functional inorganic compounds.
• Access metastable and kinetically trapped phases through appropriate low-temperature and soft-chemical routes.
• Work with the characterization team to develop routine and specialized structural characterization workflows (powder XRD, phase ID, refinement) for materials identification and quality control.
• Take synthesized materials through to functional property screening (magnetic, transport, optical, or related) in partnership with the characterization team and use the resulting data to refine target selection and synthesis design.
• Partner with materials simulation scientists, ML researchers, and systems engineers to integrate synthesis outputs into closed-loop, AI-guided experimental workflows.
• Develop and document robust protocols for air- and moisture-sensitive precursors, controlled-atmosphere processing, and post-synthetic workup in a highly automated lab environment.
• Maintain rigorous laboratory records and uphold safety and regulatory standards.

What You'll Need to Succeed

• PhD in Solid-State Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Materials Science, or a related field, with 1–5 years of postdoctoral or industry experience.
• A documented portfolio of novel inorganic compounds spanning multiple chemical systems.
• Hands-on proficiency across multiple inorganic synthesis modalities, with comfort selecting the right approach for a given target phase.
• Demonstrated experience performing materials synthesis campaigns driven by functional property targets (e.g., magnetism, nonlinear optical response, exotic charge transport, or related phenomena).
• Strong working command of complex multicomponent and multidimensional phase diagrams and the structural-chemistry principles that govern phase formation and stability.

[…]
de 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
$128,000 — $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.

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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.