Senior Principal Scientist, Foundation Models - San Francisco, CA
23 hours ago

Job description
Your Impact at Lila
Lila is embarking on a transformative mission to redefine the future of medicine by combining automated large-scale data generation with scientific superintelligence. At Lila, we don't just use AI to analyze biology; we are building the loop where AI and automation co-evolve to solve the hardest problems in medicine. We are seeking world-class ML Research Scientists to join the founding AI team. You will be the driver and engine of our scientific superintelligence, moving between deep theoretical research and the practical deployment of models. Whether you are a hands-on IC pushing the boundaries of SOTA ML or a technical lead guiding a high-velocity research pod, we have a place for your expertise.
What You'll Be Building
- Model Architecture & Research: Lead the design, training, and evaluation of large-scale generative models and reasoning frameworks for biological data.
- The "Lila Loop" Execution: Collaborate directly with experimentalists to design and optimize the Lila "Lab-in-the-Loop" lifecycle. You will own the end-to-end ML process, from steering data generation to designing pipeline models integrated into our automated closed-loop discovery engine.
- Bilingual Translation: Translate complex biological questions into well-defined ML problems. You will work side-by-side with wet-lab scientists to interpret model outputs and refine design strategies.
- Technical Mentorship: Provide deep technical guidance to a small team of researchers, ensuring code quality, rigorous benchmarking, and scientific integrity.
Areas of Impact
Successful candidates will focus on nucleic acid design. In particular, optimizing mRNA sequences, regulatory elements (UTRs/Promoters), and viral vectors for high-expression and tissue-specificity.
What You'll Need To Succeed
- Education: PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Biology, or a related quantitative field.
Research Excellence (Level I): We require at least one first-author paper in a premier venue:
ML Focus: ICLR, ICML, or NeurIPS (Full track).
Biology/Nature Focus: Nature, Science, Cell, or specialized titles (Nature Methods, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine).
qAdvanced Experience: Beyond the initial track record, we look for multiple high-impact contributions, industry pipeline accomplishments, and/or proven expertise in technical project leadership.
- Scientific Vision: We seek individuals whose work demonstrates the potential to be (or is already recognized as) a seminal contribution to the field, fundamentally aligned with Lila's vision of automated reasoning.
About Lila
Lila Sciences is the world's first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science. We are pioneering a new age of boundless discovery by building the capabilities to apply AI to every aspect of the scientific method. We are introducing scientific superintelligence to solve humankind's greatest challenges, enabling scientists to bring forth solutions in human health, climate, and sustainability at a pace and scale never experienced before. Learn more about this mission at
If this sounds like an environment you'd love to work in, even if you only have some of the experience listed below, we encourage you to apply.
Compensation
We expect the base salary for this role to fall between
$360,000 – $480,000 USD per year
, along with bonus potential and generous early equity. The final offer will reflect your unique background, expertise, and impact.
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.
Similar jobs
+Join Prior Labs in building breakthrough foundation models that understand spreadsheets and databases - the backbone of science and business. · +We're tackling this $100B+ opportunity to revolutionize how we approach scientific discovery, medical research, financial modeling, an ...
1 month ago
Your Impact at Lila · Lila is embarking on a transformative mission to redefine the future of medicine by combining automated large-scale data generation with scientific superintelligence. At Lila, we don't just use AI to analyze biology; we are building the loop where AI and aut ...
1 day ago
We are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. · Foundation Model Serving is the API Product for hosting and serving frontier AI m ...
1 week ago
+Do you feel you think differently, you are eager to break status quo, are bold and ambitious, aren't afraid to take risks and are passionate to build the best of class technology. · +Work along side Foundation Model Research team to optimize inference for cutting edge model arch ...
3 weeks ago
We are passionate about enabling data teams to solve world's toughest problems by building and running world's best data AI infrastructure platform. · Design implement core systems APIs that power Databricks Foundation Model Serving ensuring scalability reliability operational ex ...
1 month ago
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Foundation Modeling
Only for registered members
We are seeking a highly skilled Senior ML Engineer to drive state-of-the-art bidding optimization systems that enable efficient budget pacing, goal-aligned automated strategies, continual improvement through experimentation, and sustainable growth for Unity Ads. · We are committe ...
1 month ago
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Foundation Modeling
Only for registered members
We are seeking a highly skilled Senior ML Engineer to drive state-of-the-art bidding optimization systems that enable efficient budget pacing, goal-aligned automated strategies, continual improvement through experimentation, and sustainable growth for Unity Ads.We are committed t ...
1 month ago
We are focused on generating and activating data from a variety of sources to arrive at the best solutions for a person based on a comprehensive view of the evidence. · Design and develop large-scale foundation models and self-supervised learning algorithms to integrate and learn ...
1 month ago
+This is an opportunity for a scientific innovator to advance the future of generative AI in drug discovery. · +Lead transformative research projects from conception to implementation. · Design and develop novel models and algorithms. · Collaborate intensely with multidisciplinar ...
1 month ago
Woven by Toyota is enabling Toyota's once-in-a-century transformation into a mobility company. Inspired by a legacy of innovating for the benefit of others, our mission is to challenge the current state of mobility through human-centric innovation — expanding what · ...
4 weeks ago
Research Intern: Tactile-Aware Multi-Modal Foundation Models for Dexterous Manipulation
Only for registered members
Honda Research Institute USA (HRI-US) seeks passionate individual for tactile-aware multi-modal foundation models development. · ...
4 weeks ago
+Job summary · About the Team · Join a world-class team at the forefront of AI and biochemistry. · +QualificationsA deep learning expert with a portfolio of novel research in one or more cutting-edge domains of generative or predictive modeling (e.g., diffusion, flow matching, RL ...
1 week ago
Join a world-class team at the forefront of AI and biochemistry. We're a tight-knit team of proven deep learning researchers, software engineers, and drug discovery pioneers. Our shared mission is nothing short of revolutionary: to forge the next generation of AI foundation model ...
1 week ago
We help companies thrive in the new AI-first era of business. · Lead and grow multiple teams of infrastructure and ML engineers (including senior individual contributors and, potentially, other managers) responsible for the AI platform that powers Box AI. · ...
1 week ago
We work on a diverse set of problems ranging from solving optimization problems in 3D geometric computer vision to designing and deploying novel ML architectures for perception, prediction, and motion planning for Toyota customers. We are looking for doers and creative problem so ...
1 week ago
We are seeking a seasoned ML engineer to support the development of foundation models for our autonomy stack. You will be responsible for curating the right multi-modal data, identifying the most suitable model architectures, steering towards the best training paradigms, · optimi ...
6 days ago
Research Scientist Intern, Efficient World Foundation Models
Only for registered members
Meta's mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Through our family of apps and services, we're building a different kind of company that connects billions of people around the world... · ...
3 weeks ago
We are looking for a seasoned ML engineer to support the development of foundation models for our autonomy stack. · Lead the roadmap, research, development, and deployment of foundation models / VLAs / VLMs / world models for our autonomy stack across a variety of applicationsDis ...
1 week ago
Staff Research Scientist-Generative AI and Foundational Models
Only for registered members
This position represents an exciting opportunity to make key contributions to Visa's strategic vision as a world-leading data-driven company. · ...
3 weeks ago
Staff Research Scientist-Generative AI and Foundational Models
Only for registered members
We are looking for a Staff Research Scientist to advance the long-term research agenda in artificial intelligence and machine learning at Visa. The successful candidate must have strong academic track record and demonstrate excellent software engineering skills. · Conduct researc ...
3 weeks ago