Associate Director of Physical Sciences EH&S

Your Impact at LILA

As an Associate Director of Physical Sciences EH&S, you will be a hands-on, in-person contributor responsible for ensuring a safe, compliant, and efficient lab environment across our physical science facilities. You will directly implement and maintain comprehensive environmental health and safety programs that enable groundbreaking discoveries in material science, battery technologies, and X-ray-enabled research within a secure, compliant setting.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and maintain EH&S programs and policies with a practical, hands-on focus on physical and chemical hazards, material sciences, nanomaterials, X-ray safety, laser safety, machine shop activities, and battery engineering, manufacturing, and testing environments.
• Conduct in-person safety evaluations, hazard identifications, iterative risk assessments, FMEA, and facility walkthroughs to promptly identify hazards and implement corrective actions.
• Oversee chemical safety and hazardous waste disposal processes specific to physical science labs, including solvents, and reactive materials.
• Design, deliver, and document practical EH&S training and onboarding for researchers, technicians, and contractors, emphasizing real-world safety practices, regulatory compliance, and hands-on procedures for material science, high-pressure synthesis, X-ray operation, and material handling.
• Lead development of best practices for chemical handling, hazardous materials storage, nanomaterials safety, and X-ray usage in multiple lab configurations.
• Coordinate with lab groups to ensure compliance with chemical hygiene, radiological safety for X-ray work, laser safety, and waste disposal regulations; collaborate with 3rd party contractors as needed.
• Participate in incident investigations, performing root-cause analysis, FMEA, and developing pragmatic prevention strategies and corrective actions.
• Maintain and manage compliance documentation, records, and reporting with an emphasis on actionable, in-field documentation.
• Act as a hands-on safety partner to lab teams, translating regulatory requirements into clear, on-the-ground procedures and checklists.

Note: While we strive to continuously improve our EH&S program, we recognize that true auditing involves a level of formality and rigor we are not yet structured to fully support. At this stage, we use the terms “review,” “evaluation,” or “verification” to better reflect the nature of our processes.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• BA/BS degree in Environmental Health and Safety, Industrial Hygiene, Chemistry, Materials Science, Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 5+ years of hands-on EH&S experience in scientific, laboratory, or biotech environments with a strong emphasis on physical science domains and in-field safety operations.
• Solid understanding of safety regulations across chemical hygiene, radiation/X-ray safety, hazardous waste disposal, and battery handling/transport.
• Demonstrated ability to perform in-person safety evaluations, risk assessments, and facility reviews, with a track record of implementing tangible corrective actions.
• Excellent organizational skills, clear communication, and hands-on training capabilities.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across chemistry, materials science, electronics, battery R&D, and radiography/X-ray workstreams.
• Comfortable working in environments with X-ray sources or radiographic activities and handling battery technologies and related safety requirements.

Bonus Points For:

• Certifications in OSHA, HazMat, Laser Safety, Radiation Safety (X-ray), or related safety programs.
• Experience with lab safety management software, electronic lab notebooks, or asset/inventory safety tools.
• Experience with electrical safety, high-energy materials, or energy storage systems (EV batteries, Li-ion, solid-state chemistries).
• Familiarity with NFPA70E

Working Conditions

• This role requires frequent on-site presence in our active laboratories in Cambridge, Ma.

Compensation

We offer competitive compensation including bonus potential and generous early equity. The final offer will reflect your unique background, expertise, and impact.

Expected Base Salary Range $156,000 — $208,000 USD

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.