Senior Software Engineer I/II, Test Robotics

Your Impact at LILA You will steward Verification & Validation and software quality for our autonomous labs, where software meets real robotics hardware. On the Independent Verification & Validation team, you'll build the V&V, Hardware-in-the-Loop, and UI testing that lets us ship fast without breaking the lab, partnering with platform, simulation, and human-factors engineers to catch failures in test rather than on the bench. What You'll Be Building Automate the test suites: fast, reliable Python automation — from pytest unit and API coverage to Playwright UI flows — wired into CI/CD (GitHub Actions). Validate against hardware: Hardware-in-the-Loop tests that exercise platform software against real and simulated robotics hardware, integrated with our simulation and digital-twin systems. Own V&V and test planning: verification & validation processes and test plans that map requirements to coverage across the software-to-hardware boundary. Test the interfaces scientists use: UI testing for the internal dashboards and orchestration UIs that drive the factory. Tame nondeterminism: regression and reliability testing that isolates flakiness and keeps signal high as the platform grows. Manage test data: fixtures that make results reproducible and failures diagnosable. What You'll Need to Succeed Test/QA automation depth: 4–8 years in software test or QA automation for complex, integrated systems. Automation in Python: hands-on with pytest and a modern UI framework (Playwright); front-end unit testing (Vitest/Jest) a plus. V&V and test strategy: defining test plans and V&V processes, and reasoning about what to test at which layer. CI/CD integration: embedding tests into pipelines (GitHub Actions or similar) and keeping them fast and stable. Integration & HIL mindset: testing across service, UI, and hardware boundaries, including nondeterministic behavior. Cross-functional communication: working alongside platform and simulation engineers and communicating risk clearly. Bonus Points For Hardware-in-the-Loop experience: prior HIL, robotics, or lab automation testing against physical or simulated devices. Simulation / digital twin: testing software against simulators or digital-twin environments. Test infrastructure: building test data management, fixtures, or reporting for large suites. Systems engineering & regulated industries: V&V experience in aerospace, manufacturing, or healthcare/life sciences, and a systems-thinking approach to the software-hardware boundary. Exposure to GAMP 5 / FDA CSA, 21 CFR Part 11, or DO-178C a plus. 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. Expected Base Salary Range $144,000 — $240,000 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 m…