Senior II/ Staff Engineer, Hardware & Controls Engineering, Mechatronic Controls
TLDR
Design and deliver real-time control software for custom lab instruments while collaborating with cross-functional teams on innovative mechatronic solutions.
Your Impact at LILA
Lila Sciences is seeking a Mechatronics Embedded Engineer to design and deliver the real-time control software that brings our custom lab instruments to life. You’ll translate electro‑mechanical designs into reliable, automation-ready systems through robust embedded controls and integration.
What You'll Be Building
- Embedded Controls Development: Design and implement real-time control logic and firmware on Embedded platforms for electromechanical systems owning the full loop from sensor input through control logic to actuation output.
- Hardware Bring-up & Testing: Lead hardware bring-up, motor tuning, and closed-loop control optimization; diagnose issues across mechanical, electrical, and software domains.
- Prototyping & Testing: Build and iterate on bench setups; develop HW-in-the-loop test fixtures; validate performance against system requirements.
- System Interfaces: Develop and integrate ****interfaces (REST APIs ****and OPC UA endpoints) to bridge the gap between new and existing instrumentation, automation frameworks, and robotics control systems ensuring reliable, cross-platform interoperability.
- Technical Documentation: Create, update, and maintain clear, comprehensive documentation for driver interfaces, APIs, and integration methods, facilitating ease of use by internal teams and end-users.
- Collaboration and Support: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including mechanical and electrical engineers, software developers, product managers, and end-users, to identify requirements and make design decisions.
What You’ll Need to Succeed
- Proficiency in C/C++ and Python programming languages is essential.
- Experience building control software for mechatronic systems or instruments on Embedded Linux (Jetson, Raspberry Pi)
- Familiarity with real-time microcontrollers (STM32 or similar ARM Cortex-M) for low-level control tasks.
- Proven hardware/software troubleshooting and debugging skills;
- Thrives in hands-on, prototype-heavy environments.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills to collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams.
- Proficiency with version control systems, especially Git.
- 8-12 years of experience with Bachelor's degree in Engineering field or related discipline.
Bonus Points For
- Experience working directly with end-users (e.g., scientists, laboratory technicians), using feedback to drive product improvements.
- Experience or Familiarity with developing and designing PCBs & firmware.
- Experience developing and integrating control systems with PLC systems, especially the Beckhoff ecosystem, including TwinCAT PLCs, EtherCAT I/O.
- Exposure to 2D/3D machine vision: camera selection, calibration, vision-guided motion
- Experience with OPC UA based communication.
- Functional safety exposure (ISO 13849/IEC 62061), FMEA, and fault-tolerant design
- Experience developing HMI or other user interfaces (UI).
Compensation
We offer competitive compensation including bonus potential and generous early equity. The final offer will reflect your unique background, expertise, and impact.
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.
Lila Sciences is building the world's first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous laboratories tailored for life, chemical, and materials sciences. Our innovative approach applies AI to every aspect of the scientific method, enabling researchers to tackle significant global challenges with unprecedented speed and efficiency.
- Founded
- Founded 2023
- Industry
- Biotechnology