Research Scientist I/II, AI for Process Engineering

Your Impact at Lila

As a member of our team in the Physical Sciences division, you will design and build intelligent agent-driven systems that enable AI-accelerated and AI-orchestrated process engineering across a broad range of industrial applications. The core mission of this role is to develop methods by which AI agents can reason about, design, simulate, optimize, and operate complex physical and chemical processes using existing or ML-driven process engineering tools. You will focus on creating agentic infrastructures that allow AI systems to plan and execute multi-step process engineering workflows, ranging from process synthesis and flowsheet generation to steady-state and dynamic simulation, control strategy design, and techno-economic evaluation. Your work will directly shape how Lila’s scientific superintelligence performs closed-loop autonomous process engineering to solve real-world problems.

What You'll Be Building

• Architect and implement agentic frameworks that support end-to-end process engineering workflows, including process setup, simulation, optimization, and analysis.
• Develop AI agents capable of autonomously planning, executing, and iterating on process engineering tasks using existing tools (e.g., steady-state and dynamic simulators, optimizers, and data systems).
• Explore agentic approaches for advanced tasks such as process intensification, control co-design, real-time optimization, and closed-loop learning from operational data.
• Improve robustness, interpretability, and reproducibility of agent-driven process engineering workflows; build internal tooling for debugging, observability, validation, and auditability.
• Work with interdisciplinary teams to apply agentic process engineering to a broad range of industrial applications

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• PhD or equivalent experience in Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Research experience in method development for process engineering, a strong publication record in this area or established industry experience
• Hands-on experience with process simulation and optimization tools (commercial or open-source), including steady-state and dynamic modeling.
• Proficiency in Python and scientific/engineering computing ecosystems
• Experience integrating external engineering tools or simulators into automated workflows via APIs, scripting interfaces, or custom wrappers.
• Familiarity with distributed systems, HPC environments, cloud platforms, or scalable compute infrastructure.

Bonus Points For

• Experience developing or integrating agentic frameworks, autonomous planners, or multi-step tool-using AI systems for engineering or scientific domains.
• Experience building computational pipelines, automation systems, or tool-use frameworks for complex engineering or scientific workflows.
• Experience with digital twins, real-time optimization, or model-predictive control frameworks.
• Background in techno-economic analysis (TEA), life-cycle assessment (LCA), or sustainability-driven process design.
• Contributions to open-source engineering software, ML infrastructure, workflow engines, or agent frameworks.

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  www.lila.ai

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 $176,000 – $304,000 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.

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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.