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Controls Engineer

Lila Sciences · Cambridge, MA USA

onsitefull-timemid level

About this role

Your Impact at LILA

Lila is seeking a motivated Controls Engineer to contribute to the design, development, and implementation of control systems for automated scientific equipment. This role involves applying core engineering principles to support PLC controls, robotics integration, troubleshooting systems, and collaborating within cross-functional teams to enhance laboratory automation.

What You'll Be Building

  • Assist in designing, programming, and deploying control systems using PLC and SCADA technologies to optimize laboratory workflows.
  • Support the integration and testing of advanced robotics and conveyance systems within existing automation frameworks.
  • Assist in integrating 3rd party equipment and vendor software into SCADA and make custom HMIs to aid in user controls.
  • Contribute to the design and implementation of safety systems to safely operate a mix of lab equipment and robotics.
  • Collaborate with software teams to support the integration of control systems with broader IT/OT factory infrastructure.
  • Create, update, and maintain engineering documentation, including P&ID diagrams, wiring schematics, control narratives, and instrument IO lists.
  • Support multi-team automation projects by independently executing technical tasks, meeting milestones, and adhering to engineering best practices.
  • Perform calibration, testing, troubleshooting, and validation of control systems to ensure they meet performance, accuracy, and safety standards.
  • Work closely with subject matter experts (SMEs) and project teams to understand technical requirements and solve moderately complex hardware/software challenges.
  • Identify recurring technical issues and implement improvements to enhance system reliability and operational efficiency.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

  • 2–4 years of experience in designing, implementing, or maintaining control systems, preferably in automated manufacturing or laboratory environments.
  • Solid understanding of PLCs, HMI, SCADA, and related automation software and hardware.
  • Familiarity with industrial networking basics in OT deployments (e.g., IP addressing, basic routing).
  • Experience reading and creating detailed engineering documents and schematics using tools like AutoCAD, SolidWorks Electrical, or similar.
  • Hands-on experience or academic background in robotics integration and programming.
  • Effective communication and collaborative skills for working within project teams and with internal stakeholders.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to independently execute solutions for well-defined technical issues.

Bonus Points For

  • Ignition SCADA Core training and HMI design experience.
  • Structured text programming experience in TwinCAT, Python, C++, etc.
  • Familiarity with communication protocols like OPC-UA, MQTT, and REST APIs.
  • Exposure to safety system design concepts and classifications like SIL or PL.
  • Basic understanding of managed network switches, port addressing/IP subnetting, and DHCP services.
  • Ability to troubleshoot basic traffic flows between OT networks and cloud instances.

Compensation

We offer competitive compensation including bonus potential and generous early equity. The final offer will reflect your unique background, expertise, and impact.

Expected Base Salary Range
$75,600—$124,800 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.

About Lila Sciences

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