Senior Engineer II / Staff Engineer, Electromechanical Technician
Lilasciences
·May 14, 2026
- Location
- Cambridge, MA USA
- Department
- Autonomous Science Platform
- Seniority
- Senior
- Education
- Certification
- Source
- Greenhouse
Description
Your Impact at LILA
Lila Sciences is seeking a Contract Electromechanical Technician to join our Hardware & Controls Engineering team. As an Electromechanical Technician at Lila, you will be the hands-on expert who turns innovative designs into reality. You’ll build, assemble, and troubleshoot custom automated instruments, workcells, and experimental equipment that advance frontier research in life and physical sciences. Your work will drive rapid prototyping, enable complex R&D, and directly empower engineers, scientists, and automation specialists to translate their ideas into working solutions. You’ll play a critical role as the technical link between design and execution across cross-disciplinary teams.
What You'll Be Building
- Assemble, install, and calibrate custom electromechanical equipment and automated systems from 3D CAD models, blueprints, mechanical drawings, and electrical schematics provided by engineering.
- Support engineers and scientists in rapid prototyping test stands, fixtures, and experimental setups, including mechanical assembly, light machine work (e.g., drill presses, chop saws), and hands-on fabrication.
- Perform electrical wiring, cable routing, and component mounting for automation panels, instruments, and workcells—including sensors, actuators, control boards, and pneumatic components.
- Participate in integration, bring-up, and debugging of automation subsystems (mechanical, pneumatic, electrical, optical), working closely with controls and software engineers on system configuration and troubleshooting.
- Execute maintenance, repairs, upgrades, and alignments on complex equipment.
- Provide real-time feedback to engineering teams during builds regarding design issues or opportunities for improvement.
- Maintain up-to-date documentation on builds, repairs, troubleshooting, and component history.
- Ensure safe working conditions and adherence to lab and industry standards during all fabrication, assembly, and testing.
What You’ll Need to Succeed
- Associate’s degree in electro-mechanical technology, mechatronics, industrial maintenance, or related field — or military technical training/vocational certification.
- Advanced skill with mechanical assembly and electrical diagnostic work, including use of mechanical hand tools, measuring equipment (calipers, gauges), multimeters, and basic machine tools.
- Ability to read, interpret, and work precisely from 3D CAD models, mechanical drawings, and 2D electrical schematics.
- Familiarity with PLCs (e.g., Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Beckhoff), motor controllers, actuators, sensors, and industrial automation components.
- Experience in assembly and troubleshooting of electrical/cable, pneumatic, fluid, or thermal systems.
- Practical knowledge of industry safety procedures and compliance requirements (e.g., electrical code, LOTO, OSHA).
- Strong analytical/troubleshooting ability; highly adaptable in fast-paced, rapidly evolving environments.
- Clear, practical communicator who collaborates effectively with multiple engineering domains.
- Excellent time management, able to take initiative and juggle multiple projects or tasks with minimal supervision.
Bonus Points For
- Hands-on experience supporting highly interdisciplinary R&D teams: building or modifying prototypes across mechanical, controls, and software domains.
- Proficiency with 3D CAD modeling or editing (SolidWorks strongly preferred; other platforms welcome).
- Familiarity with AutoCAD, or tools for drafting/wiring electrical schematics.
- Experience assembling control panels, wiring PLCs, or working at the panel/component level in automation.
- Experience with digital maintenance or documentation tools (CMMS, ERP, Kanban, Wikis).
- 4+ years in an automation, manufacturing, robotics, or laboratory environment.
- Certifications: CMRT, OSHA 10/30, PLC programming, or other industry-relevant credentials.
- Experience in a cleanroom, laboratory automation, or regulated R&D context.
- Prior customer or vendor-facing experience for component sourcing, fabrication, or troubleshooting.
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.
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.
