{"id":1436056,"url":"https://alion.io/job/lila-sciences-scientist-iisenior-scientist-solid-state-materials","title":"Scientist II/Senior Scientist, Solid-State Materials","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":"A","score":88,"open_postings":44,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.295,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":73,"computed_at":"2026-10-21T05:46:15Z"}},"role":"Science & Research","role_family":"Science & Research","seniority":"senior","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":198000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":198000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":1,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-29T01:51:40Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-16","last_verified_at":"2026-10-21T18:28:33Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":22,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":22},"description":"Your Impact at LILA\nAs 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.\nWhat You'll Be Building\nDesign 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).\nTranslate phase-diagram, crystal-chemistry, and structure-property reasoning into concrete, prioritized synthesis pathways for novel functional inorganic compounds.\nAccess metastable and kinetically trapped phases through appropriate low-temperature and soft-chemical routes.\nWork with the characterization team to develop routine and specialized structural characterization workflows (powder XRD, phase ID, refinement) for materials identification and quality control.\nTake 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.\nPartner with materials simulation scientists, ML researchers, and systems engineers to integrate synthesis outputs into closed-loop, AI-guided experimental workflows.\nDevelop and document robust protocols for air- and moisture-sensitive precursors, controlled-atmosphere processing, and post-synthetic workup in a highly automated lab environment.\nMaintain rigorous laboratory records and uphold safety and regulatory standards.\nWhat You'll Need to Succeed\nPhD in Solid-State Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Materials Science, or a related field, with 1-5 years of postdoctoral or industry experience.\nA documented portfolio of novel inorganic compounds spanning multiple chemical systems.\nHands-on proficiency across multiple inorganic synthesis modalities, with comfort selecting the right approach for a given target phase.\nDemonstrated experience performing materials synthesis campaigns driven by functional property targets (e.g., magnetism, nonlinear optical response, exotic charge transport, or related phenomena).\nStrong working command of complex multicomponent and multidimensional phase diagrams and the structural-chemistry principles that govern phase formation and stability.\nDeep proficiency in X-ray diffraction and scattering techniques, including quantitative phase analysis and Rietveld refinement.\nFluency working across multimodal characterization (e.g., diffraction, magnetometry, transport, spectroscopy, microscopy) to inform synthesis decisions and iteration.\nEffective written and verbal communication, with a track record of cross-functional collaboration.\nBonus Points For\nDemonstrated depth in one or more functional inorganic material classes.\nExperience with single-crystal growth, particularly metallic flux, with additional methods (vapor transport, Bridgman, floating zone) welcome.\nExperience with metallurgical processing techniques for densification and sample conditioning (e.g., sintering, hot pressing, spark plasma sintering, arc melting, controlled annealing).\nExperience with neutron scattering, pair distribution function (PDF), or other local-structure techniques for solving structure and ordering in disordered or metastable phases.\nComfort with inert-atmosphere handling (glovebox, Schlenk) and air- or moisture-sensitive chemistries.\nExposure to high-pressure or otherwise unconventional preparative environments.\nFamiliarity with thin-film or vacuum-based deposition techniques and how they fit alongside bulk synthesis.\nProficiency in Python or similar tools for data analysis and workflow automation.\nExposure to automated, high-throughput, or autonomous laboratory environments.\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—$198,000 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":7018,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":1,"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":["Materials Science & Nanotechnology","Laboratory & Pharmaceutical Robotics","AI Research Labs","AI for Science"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-29T03:15:48Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":22,"expected_fill_days":73,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-21T05:46:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":198000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/lila-sciences-scientist-iisenior-scientist-solid-state-materials","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/lila-sciences-scientist-iisenior-scientist-solid-state-materials.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-21T19:59:07Z","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":28360,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"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-iisenior-scientist-solid-state-materials"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"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-iisenior-scientist-solid-state-materials"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"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-iisenior-scientist-solid-state-materials"},{"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-iisenior-scientist-solid-state-materials\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Flila-sciences-scientist-iisenior-scientist-solid-state-materials"}]}