{"id":924416,"url":"https://alion.io/job/lila-sciences-scientist-ii-silicon-photonics","title":"Scientist II, Silicon Photonics","company":{"id":65163,"name":"Lila Sciences","domain":"lila.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/lila-ai","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":84,"open_postings":39,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.436,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":78,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"Semiconductors","role_family":"Semiconductors","seniority":"middle","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Cambridge, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":128000,"max":170000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":170000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false}],"status":"closed","first_seen_at":"2026-09-15T00:40:18Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-16","last_verified_at":"2026-11-09T14:52:48Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":"2026-11-09T14:52:48Z","days_open":55,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":55},"description":"Your Impact at LILA\nLila Sciences is seeking a Scientist II, Silicon Photonics to join the Materials Science team within the Autonomous Science Platform. This role builds the measurement, analysis, and data-quality foundation for novel electro-optic materials and the photonic devices built from them, turning material and device performance into trusted data for scientists and for the models that learn from it.\nYou will own characterization across the full stack, from thin-film material properties through passive photonic structures to electro-optic modulators, at both chip and wafer level. That means defining what to measure, designing and standing up the test setups, and establishing the calibration and quality-control procedures that make results comparable across material variants, process conditions, and design iterations. This is hands-on work: you will assemble and debug optical and optoelectronic measurement setups, not just operate them.\nThe role sits between materials, device design, fabrication, and test. You will interpret measured data in the context of material properties, process variation, and device physics, feed findings back into material and design decisions, and partner with our simulation and ML teams. You will also define measurement requirements for the automation team and prototype methods well enough to scale into reliable infrastructure.\nThe ideal candidate has followed photonic devices from material through fabrication to characterization, and has strong judgment about measurement quality: how to design a measurement that answers the question, and how to know when the data cannot be trusted.\nWhat You'll Be Building\nOwn characterization spanning thin-film material properties, passive photonic structures, and electro-optic modulators, at chip and wafer level. \nDefine measurement strategies that produce reliable, decision-grade material and device performance data.\nDesign, assemble, calibrate, and debug optical and optoelectronic test setups.\nCreate measurement methods for novel thin film materials where no standard protocol exists, with calibration and quality-control practices that make results comparable across material variants and process conditions.\nDevelop wafer-level measurement approaches that provide statistical insight into material and process variation and accelerate design iteration.\nAnalyze data through material properties, device physics, process variation, and measurement uncertainty.\nFeed characterization results back into material, design, and fabrication decisions, and partner with simulation and ML teams.\nPrototype measurement methods for the automation team to scale into reliable infrastructure. • Document procedures, data standards, and measurement limitations clearly for cross-functional teams.\nWhat You'll Need to Succeed\nPhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Materials Science, or a related field.\nHands-on experience characterizing photonic materials and devices at chip and wafer level, spanning thin-film and material-level measurements through passive and active device testing.\nExperience measuring thin-film optical and electro-optic properties, including extraction of electro-optic coefficients.\nExperience testing passive photonic structures such as waveguides, resonators, and couplers, including loss and dispersion characterization.\nExperience with electro-optic modulators or related active integrated photonic devices. • Experience building and debugging optical and optoelectronic measurement setups, including alignment, calibration, and noise control.\nExperience developing measurement methods where no standard protocol exists, including defending measurement validity and data quality.\nExperience interpreting data through material properties, device physics, process variation, measurement uncertainty, and repeatability.\nFamiliarity with high-speed RF/electronics, fiber optics, and electro-optic testing workflows.\nProficiency in Python, MATLAB, or an equivalent language for automated workflow and data analysis, and collaboration with ML and automation teams.\nAbility to work across design, fabrication, simulation, and automation teams while owning the measurement-quality standard.\nBonus Points For\nExperience characterizing novel, heterogeneous, or hybrid electro-optic materials integrated on silicon photonics, such as χ⁽²⁾ or Pockels-effect thin films.\nExperience correlating film-level material properties to device-level performance.\nHands-on cleanroom fabrication experience.\nExperience with wafer-level photonic probing, active alignment, foundry workflows.\nFamiliarity with waveguide and electro-optic modulator simulation tools such as Lumerical, COMSOL, or equivalent.\nExperience writing test automation, instrument control software, or measurement data pipelines.\nPrior work supplying measurement data to ML, modeling, or simulation teams.\nCompensation\nWe offer competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity. Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact.\nU.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.\nInternational 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.\nExpected Base Salary Range\n$128,000—$170,000 USD\nAbout LILA\nLila 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.\nLILA 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.\nGuided 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.\nWe’re All In\nLila 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.\nInformation you provide during your application process will be handled in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy.\nA Note to Agencies\nLila 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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7513,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Flexible time off","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Optical Communications","Materials Science & Nanotechnology","Laboratory & Pharmaceutical Robotics","AI Research Labs"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-15T05:18:50Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-11-09T14:52:48Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 29","filings_12m":29,"filings_prev_12m":4,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":157500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-12T07:36:15+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":null,"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":170000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/lila-sciences-scientist-ii-silicon-photonics","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/lila-sciences-scientist-ii-silicon-photonics.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-14T01:28:25Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1222,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":65163},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=65163"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Flila-sciences-scientist-ii-silicon-photonics"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Flila-sciences-scientist-ii-silicon-photonics"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Flila-sciences-scientist-ii-silicon-photonics"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/lila-sciences-scientist-ii-silicon-photonics\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Flila-sciences-scientist-ii-silicon-photonics"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":924416}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"lila.ai","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":924416},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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