# Principal / Senior Principal Scientist, Small Molecule Therapeutics at Lila Sciences

- Company: Lila Sciences
- What the company does: LILA has created the world's first Operating System for Science powered by Scientific Superintelligence™. Backed by General Catalyst.
- Company website: https://www.lila.ai/
- Type: Startups (AI role)
- Level: Principal and up
- Location: Cambridge, MA USA
- Work setup: On-site
- Posted: 2026-07-20
- Apply by: 2026-10-08
- Apply: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lilasciences/jobs/4322844009
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/lila-sciences-principal-senior-principal-scientist-small-molecule-therapeutics/

## About the role

We are seeking a Senior Principal Scientist, Small Molecule Therapeutics to lead the protein science and structural biology strategy supporting small molecule therapeutics across Lila’s discovery platform. This individual will oversee recombinant protein construct design and engineering, expression and purification, and structural biology workflows that enable screening, hit validation, and structure-guided drug design.

## What they're looking for

- Deep expertise in recombinant protein expression and purification across multiple expression systems, such as bacterial, insect, and mammalian systems
- Demonstrated experience designing and engineering protein constructs for biochemical assays, biophysical characterization, crystallography, and/or Cryo-EM
- Strong track record supporting small molecule drug discovery programs through high-quality protein reagents and structural biology
- Hands-on and strategic experience with protein purification workflows, including affinity, ion exchange, size-exclusion, analytical characterization, and stability optimization
- Experience managing external CROs or partners for protein production, purification, crystallography, or related structural biology activities
- Strong understanding of X-ray crystallography workflows, including construct design, protein-ligand complex preparation, crystallization, data collection, structure determination, and structure interpretation

Tags: Autonomous Science Platform